


O' Death (Until Dawn AU)

by PossiblyAwesomeAO3



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Audience Participation Fic, Being Chased, Creepy Dolls, Gore, M/M, Maniac, Mentions of Sexual Content, Panic Attacks, Shattered Glass, Until Dawn AU, all depends on you, but no actual sex, buzzsaw - Freeform, chased by killer, falling off of towers, filming people sleeping, good luck, heights, i know this game is like five years old but shut up i love it, like a lot of gore, not all the choices are the same, or end up the same, people getting cut in half, pretty traumatizing stuff, so no one fuck it up for everyone else, so you can't just look up the game and immediately know how to beat this version, sorry to all you thirsty fans out there, the major character death could involve all of them dying or none of them, tw: it's until dawn, your comments decide the outcome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 93,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23384893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PossiblyAwesomeAO3/pseuds/PossiblyAwesomeAO3
Summary: Eight friends trapped on a mountain. A prank gone horribly wrong. Ten hours to survive.Only your choices will determine who lives, and who doesn't make it to see the dawn.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Dr. Emile Picani/Sleep | Remy Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, hints at dukeceit, past roman/remy
Comments: 311
Kudos: 110





	1. Prologue: Before the Dawn

**\---- THOMAS, 1:48 A.M. ----**

Despite the screaming music coming from somewhere deeper in the lodge, the kitchen was completely devoid of any people. The lights hanging from the ceiling had been dimmed to the point where the moonlight drifting in through the blinds was an easier source to see by. It illuminated everything in a hazy sort of white, from the barstools lined up by the kitchen counter to the dull matte finish of the fridge tucked away in the corner, to the door handle as it slowly turned, the door itself creaking as it was pushed open. 

Thomas grimaced at the noise, and carefully let go of the handle before venturing further into the room. He tugged his sweater closer around him -- the lodge had a way of getting chilly despite the heating system, as if the winter wind was still finding ways to sneak past the walls -- and kept watch of exactly where he was placing his feet. He’d spent countless summers and winters in the lodge, and knew well enough that plenty of the floorboards would creak. He couldn’t make a sound. He couldn’t let them know where he was. 

Thomas slowly made his way further into the kitchen, towards a cooler that had been haphazardly shoved in the corner to get it out of people’s way when the kitchen hadn’t felt so desolate. The cooler was blue, although the sharp contrast between the moonlight and the darkness made it appear much darker, and it was one of the few things in the kitchen that didn’t have a fine layer of dust overtop of it from months of being left alone. 

A smile broke over Thomas’ face as he reached the cooler, easily popping the lid open. He’d made it, and no one was even the wiser -- 

“Nope. Not happening.” 

Thomas whipped around, the smile falling from his face when he spotted his older brother nonchalantly leaning in the doorway, a bottle hanging from his fingertips. 

“Roman--”

“Don’t wanna’ hear it. No twerps allowed in the alcohol.” Roman said and walked over to him, pushing the lid closed again with his foot. “Remus already passed out, no way in hell I’m dealing with you and Joan crashing the party, too.” 

“I was looking for a Sprite!” Thomas insisted, but his voice cracked just slightly on the lie. 

“Uh-huh, yeah. Totally believable.” Roman said. “Look, Thomas, this whole weekend will be a hell of a lot easier if you and Joan stay out of the way, and that includes staying out of our stuff. Mom will flip if she finds out I let you get drunk--”

“She’d flip if she knew _you_ were getting drunk.” Thomas countered. “You’re underage, too.”

“Yeah, but you’re practically in middle school. There’s a difference.” 

“I’m fifteen!”

“Uh, you’ve been fifteen for like...a month.” Roman said. “And if I looked at you from a distance, I’d think you were eight. Now scram, you’re not getting any of this.” 

Thomas scowled, but turned around to stomp out of the kitchen, not caring where his feet landed this time. “You’re no fun!” 

“Oh, you wanna’ talk about no fun?” Roman shouted after him. “No fun is getting stuck babysitting your siblings over your winter vacation because Mom and Dad wanted them out of the house!”

Thomas didn’t care enough to listen to the rest of whatever rant Roman was about to go on, and slammed the door to the kitchen behind him. 

**\---- ROMAN, 1:52 A.M. ----**

“Seriously? I leave for ten seconds and you switch the playlist?” Roman asked, dropping the cooler in its new place in the living room with a thud. The party itself was starting to wind down, sure, but that didn’t mean they had to change his music. Even if it was hitting close to two in the morning and everyone was more or less falling asleep on couches and chairs. He didn’t even have to ask who changed it, honestly -- Virgil hanging upside down from the recliner with his phone in his hand and an amused smirk on his face told him plenty enough, if choosing to play something that was more screaming than actual singing didn’t give it away already. 

“Not my fault your music taste lives exclusively in the top 40 hits.” Virgil said, and waved his phone at him, allowing Roman to catch a glimpse of the playlist he had set up. There couldn’t be anything on there that came after 2010. “If I have to listen to one more Ariana Grande song, I’ll vomit, Sanders.” 

“And you say I have no taste.” Roman scowled, and ignored Patton’s giggle from across the room as he sat down on the couch, which was a much more difficult task than he initially expected, given that his boyfriend, Remy, was currently taking up the entire thing by lounging across it. “She’s a goddess.” 

“Well, good for her, but I’m an atheist.” Virgil said, and caught Roman’s eyes for a split second, as if daring him to keep the petty argument going until it turned into a fight. That was how most of their interactions tended to go, after all. Remy’s best friend or not, Roman did not like Virgil, and pretty much everyone knew it. 

“See, now you’re just trying to piss him off.” Remy snickered from his place on the couch, only to be on the receiving end of a dramatic how-could-you look from Roman, which only made his smile grow. “Oh, don’t be like that, babes, I’m just teasing.” 

“It’s the one thing I’m good at.” Virgil said, shrugging his shoulders. “And the only fun thing there is that’s left to do, apparently.” 

“You didn’t have to come, Virge.” Dee spoke up from where he was sitting on the couch with Emile and Patton. “Seriously. You hate each other so much, stay home and don’t spend a whole weekend around each other.” 

“Nah, I had to come.” Virgil said. “Had to make sure Remy was making good choices.” 

“Oh, because you make great ones.” Remy said, and grabbed one of the couch pillows in his reach to throw it in Virgil’s direction, hitting him square in the face. 

“ _Hey-_ ” 

“Bulls-eye!” 

“What’s up with the cooler, Roman?” Emile said, taking on the admiral task of changing the subject. “Thought you said it’d be easier to keep it in the kitchen.” 

“Yeah, see, I thought that.” Roman said, and sighed as he leaned back against the back of the couch. “But if you can’t see it, turns out, an obnoxious little pest is gonna’ try to take what doesn’t belong to him.” 

“Which one? There are two here.” Virgil asked. “Well, three, if you count the one I’m looking at.” 

“ _Very_ funny.” Roman muttered. “I just caught Thomas in the kitchen acting like it was Mission Impossible or something. You’d think he doesn’t know what ‘leave us and our stuff alone’ means.” 

“I don’t mind Thomas.” Patton piped up. “He’s a sweetheart. And he’s not that much younger, only a couple years--”

“Yeah, well, Mom treats him like a baby, and if she ever found out about this, both Remus and I would be skinned alive.” Roman said, and did a double take as he looked over towards the couch to finally notice that someone was missing. “Hey, where’d Logan go?” 

“Up to bed.” Patton said, and another small giggle escaped him. “He gives himself a bedtime when we’re on _vacation_. It’s kind of adorable.” 

“And that’s enough for you.” Emile said, reaching over to pluck the half-empty bottle from Patton’s fingers, ignoring his squeak of protest. 

“It’s _boring_.” Virgil said, and let his arm drop to his side, forgetting his phone for a moment. “Thought you and Remus said this was supposed to be a party.” 

“It _is_.” Roman insisted. 

“Really? Cause I’m falling asleep over here, Logan’s gone to bed, and Remus passed out like...an hour ago. And everyone else is just sitting around listening to music. So that counts eight of eight guests doing absolutely _nothing_.” 

“It’s two in the morning.” Dee said. 

“And I stay up until five on a regular basis, what’s your point?” 

“You gonna’ complain the whole time or what? I don’t see you having any ideas about what to do.” Remy pointed out, and a slight smirk came over Roman’s face as he was suddenly reminded of one of the reasons he liked Remy in the first place. Not afraid to call anyone out on their bullshit, not even his best friend. Nice to know Remy could be counted on in Roman’s never-ending war against Virgil. 

“You want ideas? Fine.” Virgil said. He closed his eyes and hummed along to the music for a few seconds, as if he was taking his time to think about it. When his eyes opened again, he looked straight towards Roman. 

“You said Thomas was being obnoxious?” 

“Yeah, so?” Roman asked, raising an eyebrow. Bringing Thomas into the party was the exact thing he was trying to avoid, so he wasn’t sure exactly where Virgil was going with this idea. Virgil smirked at him, and Roman couldn’t help feeling like this was either going to go very well, or horribly. 

“How easy is it to scare him?”

**\---- THOMAS, 2:21 A.M. ----**

Thomas didn’t sulk. Especially not over something stupid, like not getting the chance to get drunk for the first time. And he hadn’t even been trying to get drunk, really, it was more of a curiosity thing. He didn’t want to pass out like Remus always did, but with how often his older brothers and all their friends did it, it had to be kind of fun to be a little buzzed. So he was curious. Sue him. 

Okay, maybe he sulked a little bit. 

He was hanging upside down off of his bed in the room that he and his sibling Joan usually shared on trips to the lodge, frowning as he messed with the rainbow-patterned string bracelet tied firmly around his wrist. Joan had one that looked similar, only theirs was in different shades of orange and yellow. They’d both made them earlier that year, right around the twins’ eighteenth birthday. The twins had gone out and gotten matching tattoos, and they turned out so cool that Thomas had immediately wanted to try something like that with Joan. He’d always been closer with Joan than with the twins, of course, so it only seemed fitting that they had something matching, too. Granted, they weren’t old enough to go immediately for tattoos, their parents would kill them (and Thomas wasn’t too fond of the whole needle thing, anyway), so simple string bracelets were the next best thing. Thomas had tied his around his wrist, not so tight that it would hurt, but tight enough that he knew for a fact it wouldn’t come off unless he cut it off with scissors. Sure, maybe it wasn’t as permanent as a tattoo, but it felt close enough. 

Thomas sighed, and let his arm drop, his hand gently smacking into the wood floor of the room. He should probably be going to bed, but he wasn’t feeling tired. Just bored. This whole weekend was going to be so _boring_. It had sounded fun at first, especially since Thomas had never really been to an actual party before, and Roman and Remus’ idea of a party was sure to be crazy. The minute both he and Joan figured out that neither of the twins had any intention of letting them be a part of anything, though, the weekend quickly became nothing more than Thomas staying in his room, reading random old books he’d left there over previous summers, trying to get a phone signal, and trying not to bore himself to death. He could’ve done that just as easily at home -- 

A loud, panicked scream suddenly tore its way through the lodge, slicing directly through Thomas’s bored thoughts and sending a sudden burst of adrenaline through his system. He jolted upright so fast he nearly fell off of the bed, just barely managing to catch himself before his head slammed into the floor. He jumped up as quickly as he could, and rushed over to the door. _Did something happen? Did someone get hurt?_

Thomas threw the door open, stepping out into the hallway with no hesitation. He stopped cold in his tracks, though, when he realized that all the lights in the lodge that he could see had been shut off, and the loud music that had been playing just a few minutes ago had gone completely silent. 

“...guys?” Thomas called, and his voice felt very small in comparison with the large, silent lodge. He hugged his arms around himself, hesitant to keep moving forward. He’d been to the lodge plenty of times in his life, sure. He knew it inside and out. That didn’t stop his nerves from kicking into high gear at the sudden darkness and silence -- the lodge could be pretty creepy when he was alone at this time of night. 

There was no response whatsoever, and Thomas wasn’t sure if that should make him feel better or worse. Part of him was tempted to just go back into his room and shut the door tightly behind him, but that part of him was snuffed out by his overwhelming worry over that noise. Someone had screamed, and now it was far too quiet, and Thomas needed to know what was going on. 

“Hello?” He called out again, slowly making his way down the hall towards the staircase that led to the ground floor. That same chill that always seemed to hang around the lodge felt a bit more sinister to him this time, and he shivered, rubbing his hands over his bare arms -- he’d changed out of his sweater and jeans into his pajamas a couple of minutes ago, and was starting to regret it. The curtain that hung across the window further down the hall seemed to move on its own, but that had to be a trick of the light, or something. 

Thomas balled up his hands into fists to try and keep them from shaking as he went downstairs, only to find that the living room where all of Roman and Remus’ friends had been in earlier was now completely deserted. They must have all gone up to go to bed, or something. 

Right?

“Guys?” Thomas tried again, and silently cringed at how shaky his voice sounded. He didn’t need to be afraid, this was just the lodge. He’d been coming here all his life, there was nothing to be scared of, he was being ridiculous. Maybe no one had screamed and he’d just been hearing things--

“ _Thomas_.”

Thomas froze in place, and he could practically feel ice running through his veins. He definitely wasn’t hearing things that time. Someone had whispered his name, clear as a bell. He took a shaky step back towards the doorway that led to the living room as he felt his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He didn’t care if he’d heard a scream or not anymore, he was going straight back to his room, slamming the door, and staying in there for the rest of his life. He kept his eyes staring straight ahead into the room, as if keeping an eye on it would keep anything terrifying from jumping out and --

Right as he went past the large recliner that sat closest to the doorway, he felt a hand grab his ankle. 

“ _Gotcha._ ”

Thomas shrieked, and it was like his fight-or-flight instincts all turned up to the highest possible level all at once. He didn’t stop to think, didn’t stop to realize that he could recognize his older brother’s voice when he heard it, or that the recliner was extremely easy to hide behind. He just bolted, easily pulling away from the hand that caught his ankle. He sprinted for the door without even thinking about it, so quickly that he didn’t even register the laughter coming from the living room, or the couple of concerned shouts of his name that he could just barely hear. 

Instead, he reached the front door of the lodge in record time, and tore off into the snow outside, pure adrenaline driving him straight into the woods. 

**\---- JOAN, 2:25 A.M. ----**

All had been relatively normal for Joan, who was busy listening to one of their playlists on their phone. It was one of the few things they could do with no signal, and honestly, blocking out the world entirely with music wasn’t exactly a bad thing. They tended to prefer it that way. They were curled up in a chair in the foyer of the lodge, nodding along to the music, when a sudden flash of movement just outside the window caught their eye. 

“The hell…?” They murmured to themselves, pausing their video and sliding their headphones off to catch sight of their brother Thomas, in nothing but his pajamas, taking off into the dead of winter. No coat, no hat, no nothing. He’d freeze out there, especially when the snow had been coming down for hours and didn’t appear to be stopping any time soon. 

The sound of multiple footsteps passing by the foyer, presumably to the front door, didn’t help their sudden worry in the slightest. _What happened?_

Joan didn’t waste another second before they got up, quickly throwing on their coat that they’d tossed over the side of the couch earlier that night when they hadn’t bothered to go find a place to hang it up. They headed out of the foyer, zipping up their coat, only to see the others standing just outside the door, staring after where they’d seen Thomas run. 

“Thomas!” Patton’s voice called, just as Joan made it outside the door. 

“What’s going on?” They asked, pushing past Dee and Emile, who were standing closer to them and blocking the view into the woods. Roman had turned at the sound of Joan’s voice, and looked almost startled, almost like he’d forgotten Joan was even there. “Where’s Thomas going?” 

“He’s fine.” Virgil said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “He just can’t take a joke. Must run in the family.” 

Joan turned their eyes back on to Roman, who was scowling at Virgil’s comment. 

“What did you do?” 

“Nothing! Geez, the both of you always try to find a way to blame me.” Roman said, and silence overcame the seven of them as Joan glared at their older brother. They knew that wasn’t the answer, and eventually, someone would crack. 

“...we just played a little prank, nothing bad.” Patton spoke up, and the usual lighthearted tone that his voice usually had was gone, replaced with a sincere kind of worry. Strange to hear, when Patton’s colored cheeks told Joan everything they needed to know about how much he’d had to drink, and Patton was a giggly sort of drunk. “We all hid and Roman grabbed his ankle, it was nothing, but he took off--”

“You didn’t have to tell them, Patton.” Roman sighed. “Now they’re gonna’ get all worried--”

“Uh, yeah, of course I am, because Thomas just ran off into the _woods_.” Joan said. “I saw him through the window, he doesn’t have a coat or anything. If he gets hypothermia or something, I’m blaming you when Mom asks.” 

“He won’t get hypothermia, he’ll be fine -- hey, wait, Joan--” Roman called after him, but Joan didn’t care enough to stick around to listen. They took off into the forest, keeping an eye on the fresh footprints that Thomas had left behind. 

“Thomas!” They shouted. Thomas couldn’t have gotten too far, they’d seen them running not five minutes ago, but the forest was nearly pitch black, with nothing but the moon to light the way. The paths through the woods were thin and winding -- a couple of wrong steps and it would be all too easy to lose the path entirely. And sure, Joan trusted that Thomas could find his way back if he tried, but they weren’t about to leave their brother alone to freeze in the forest in the middle of the night. “Thomas!” 

No response. Joan swore under their breath. Sure, they could kind of get that Thomas was probably embarrassed right now and didn’t want to see anyone, but some kind of way to tell if he was nearby would be nice. They slowed down a bit the further they got into the forest, as the thicker trees blocked more of the moonlight, making it nearly impossible to see five feet in front of their face, and slid their phone back out of their pocket, switching on the flashlight. There. That was better. 

“Thomas, seriously, come on.” They shouted, shining their flashlight to illuminate the footprints ahead. “They’re all dicks, I get it, but you’re gonna’ freeze--”

A sudden flash of light and an almost inhuman noise suddenly burst to life on top of the cliff Joan was walking beside, and they shrieked, nearly tripping over their own two feet as they instinctively scrambled back. As soon as it appeared, it was gone, and Joan was left briefly paralyzed in place, staring up at where the blast of light had burned across their vision, their heart beating at a pace that had nothing to do with the way they’d sprinted into the forest. 

“...what the hell was that?” They said to themselves, their voice just as breathless as they felt, and only spent a few more seconds staring at the now silent darkness before snapping out of it. They started back along the path of footprints with a renewed sort of vigilance. Whatever that was, it didn’t look like it would be fun to encounter it a second time. They needed to find Thomas and get back to the lodge, _soon_. 

Their heart felt like it was stuck in their throat as they continued through the woods, not even bothering to call out for Thomas anymore, partially because they doubted they’d get a response anyway, and partly because a new fear of attracting unwanted attention was keeping their jaw firmly shut. Luckily, though, they didn’t need to call for Thomas, because right as they turned a corner into a small clearing where a couple of paths intertwined, there he was. On the ground, out of breath, shivering as he hugged his arms around him. 

“Thomas.” Joan said, and Thomas whipped his head around, his eyes wide as saucers, only to relax when he saw Joan running up to him. 

“Joan?”

“There you are.” Joan said, pulling off their coat as they finally reached Thomas. “Christ, man, you can’t go running off into the woods like this, you’ve got to be freezing. Take my coat.” 

“I don’t know what happened.” Thomas said, and didn’t question it as Joan handed him their coat. He seemed to relax a little as he put it on, like that little bit of warmth was already helping. “They didn't even really do anything. It’s like...all my instincts kicked in all at once, I didn’t even think about it, I just ran--”

The both of them jumped as another one of those inhuman screeching noises came from deeper in the woods again, only this time, there was no burst of light, and it sounded closer. The darkness of the forest suddenly felt much more foreboding than it had just seconds before. 

“Thomas?” 

“Joan?” 

Joan glanced back to see Thomas staring at him with wide, frightened eyes, only to stare back in the direction of the noise, waiting for whatever was making it. Maybe it was a bear. Or a deer. Or something. Something that they knew, even if it was something to be afraid of. If they knew what it was, they would know how to handle it. 

“Think you could try just running again?” Joan asked, and started to take a few steps back. Thomas mimicked his movements, clearly just as eager to get away from whatever that noise was, and the two of them were nearly out of the clearing when Joan saw it. A sharp, almost too fast to be real sort of movement, and -- 

That was definitely _not_ a bear. 

Joan didn’t know what it was, but they sure as hell weren’t about to stick around to find out. 

“Come on!” They shouted, grabbing Thomas’s wrist and not wasting a second before yanking him out of the clearing, and raced down the path away from it, dragging Thomas for a half a second before Thomas’s feet got the message and he started running. The two of them were sprinting as fast as they could, and Joan could hear Thomas freaking out beside them and muttering under his breath. 

“Jesus Christ, what the hell _was_ that, oh my god, oh my _god_ , oh my god--” 

Joan couldn’t keep their thoughts straight enough to even form coherent words at this point, focusing only on getting away from whatever it was. They could feel their phone slip out of their pocket as they ran, but they didn’t stop to grab it, especially not when they could hear it somewhere behind them, in the way the trees were rustling and sticks were snapping. Despite the fact that both Joan and Thomas were running purely on adrenaline, it felt like whatever it was, it was only getting closer. 

“ _Shit_ \--” Joan said, letting out the first coherent word that had gone through their brain as they skidded to a halt, dragging Thomas to a stop with them as the path led out of the woods and straight towards a sheer cliff drop. There weren’t any other paths to run down, and with whatever that thing was blocking the way back, there was nowhere left to run. 

“Oh my god--” Thomas said, and Joan turned around, instinctively pushing Thomas slightly behind them as they carefully backed up as far as they could go. Sure, Thomas was only younger by a little over a year, but that didn’t mean that Joan didn’t tend to fall squarely into the ‘protective older sibling’ role, even if they only did it when it counted. And it certainly counted now, as they were both squeezing the circulation out of each other’s hand, staring down something that was inhuman, but also had a terrifying kind of familiarity to it. 

Nowhere left to run. Nowhere left to hide, out in the opening on this cliffside. No options left but to cling to their brother’s hand and _pray_. 

“Get -- get back. Get back!” Joan shouted, and felt Thomas’ free hand come up to grab onto the back of their sweater, like he was trying to ground himself. His fingers were shaking. 

“Joan, Joan what the hell _is_ that--” Thomas said, and sounded like he was seconds away from crying, if he wasn’t already. 

“I don’t know -- _stay back_!” Joan shouted again, but if this thing intended to obey them, or could even understand them, it showed no indication. 

Thomas’ feet were at the very edge of the cliff. If he were to move even an inch further back, he’d fall, and they both knew it. Still, Joan had so much of their focus on whatever was in front of them that they didn’t hear the cracking noise until it was too late. 

Thomas shrieked as the ground suddenly gave out from under him, and Joan barely even had time to scream as Thomas’ tight grip on their hand yanked them down with him. Joan’s reflexes kicked in before they could even think about it, and they reached out with their free hand, catching a thick tree root that jutted out from the side of the cliff. Their arm jolted as their grip abruptly halted their fall, and Joan winced, but managed to keep hold. 

Thomas screamed from where he hung below Joan, his grip on Joan’s hand being the only thing keeping him from falling down into the sharp rocks below. Joan glanced down for a brief second, and immediately looked back, their heart hammering in their ears. They felt like they might throw up. They wouldn’t survive a fall that far, especially not onto rocks like that. Either they held on, or they both died, here and now. 

_Fuck_ . If they died, they were going to haunt Roman’s ass for the rest of _eternity_. 

“Don’t let go, Thomas--” Joan shouted, as if he needed the reminder. “Just hang on, it’s gonna’ be fine, it’ll be fine--”

Joan startled as that same burst of light shot out over the cliffside right above them, and this time, they could feel the heat on the top of their palm as another one of those inhuman screeches echoed over the cliffside. _Fire_. 

“Don’t let go!” Joan repeated, tightening their grip on the root. They had to hang on. If they could hang on long enough, someone would find them, someone would help them, they were not going to die here, they wouldn’t -- 

It was Joan’s turn to scream as a shadowy figure suddenly poked its head over the side of the cliff. It was a distinctly human figure, but Joan couldn’t see their face at all, or any other defining features, aside from the hand the person was reaching towards them with. Despite the entirely new kind of fear taking root in their stomach -- stranger danger had been drilled into their head since they were at least four -- there was an all-consuming relief over powering it. Joan didn’t give a shit about who this person was. If they got rid of that thing, and pulled the both of them up from the cliff, they’d offer them their firstborn. 

The person’s hand was inches from Joan’s, so close that Joan could feel their hopes rising. It was going to be okay. They’d both be okay. They’d both be safe, and they could march right back up to the lodge with Thomas in tow and give Roman hell for this, and convince their parents to never let Roman and Remus look after them again -- 

And then the root snapped. 

Joan immediately lost their grip, and a scream launched from their mouth as they fell backwards, heading right for the rocks below. They could only hear the wind in their ears and the way both of their screams echoed across the mountain. 

Thomas’ screams were abruptly cut off with a slam of impact that sounded ten times louder to Joan than it probably was, and Joan had just enough time to think _please be okay_ before they hit the ground, back first, and everything went black. 

**\---- ROMAN, 11:46 A.M. ----**

Jesus Christ, Remus looked like _death_. 

It was close to noon by the time Roman had dragged himself out of bed and went downstairs to get something to eat, leaving behind a disgruntled Remy, and caught sight of his twin brother sitting on one of the barstools by the kitchen island. His entire upper half sprawled over it, and the only indicator that he wasn’t still unconscious was the way he half-heartedly rose his arm in greeting when he noticed Roman was even there. 

“God, dude.” Roman said. He walked over to his brother and lightly slapped him on the back, earning an annoyed grunt in response. “You know that we’ve already proven no one else can out drink you, right? You don’t have to do this every time.” 

“I _believe_ in myself.” Remus mumbled, and shifted his arms to better shield his eyes from the sunlight pouring in through the blinds. 

“Yeah, maybe stop doing that.” Roman grinned, and looked up to catch sight of Logan, who was already dressed and eating a slice of toast. “Seriously? You’ve already made breakfast?”

“It’s noon.” Logan replied, raising an eyebrow at him. “You do realize that you have to eat food eventually?” 

“Well, yeah, but we’re on vacation. You’re supposed to live off cold pizza.” 

“As if you don’t do that anyway.” Logan said, and Roman had to admit, he had a point there. 

“Hurtful.” He said, and stretched his arms above his head. “So, anybody else awake? Aside from Mr. Regretting-All-His-Life-Choices over here.” 

“I regret _nothing_ in life!” 

“I’d barely count him as awake, but I don’t think so.” Logan said, and a slight smile came over his face as Remus flipped him off. “Everyone but Patton is still asleep, and he was only half coherent when I got up this morning, so it won’t be too surprising if he didn’t stay awake for long.” 

“Gotcha.” Roman said, and turned back around, heading back towards the stairs. “I’ll be right back, then.” 

“Oh, please, god, don’t leave me here with this one. I’ve already been listening to him complain for an hour--” Logan said, only to be on the receiving end of a half-hearted kick that barely even made a sound thanks to the strange angle Remus was trying to kick him from. 

“You love me, shut up.” Remus muttered, and Logan rolled his eyes. 

“Hey, I’m not his best friend. That’s your burden to bear.” Roman said. “I’m gonna’ go wake up Thomas and Joan. Should probably apologize for last night before everyone’s awake and Virgil’s here to poke fun at me about it.”

“What happened last night?” Logan asked, and even Remus had lifted his head up in slight curiosity. Roman wasn’t exactly one for apologies, after all. 

“Got drunk. Got annoyed. Went and scared Thomas.” Roman shrugged. “He freaked out and took off into the snow, and Joan followed him. I just feel kind of bad about it, y’know?” 

“If he goes crying to Mom, I’m pinning it on you.” Remus mumbled, and buried his face back in his arms. 

“Yeah, you and Joan both.” Roman said, and headed back up the stairs. The room that Joan and Thomas usually stayed in wasn’t far from the top of the stairs, just two doors down, and Roman leaned against the wall beside it as he knocked. 

“You guys awake in there?” He asked, trying not to be quite too loud in case he woke up anyone else. When he got no response, he sighed to himself. Sure, maybe waking the two of them up wasn’t the best idea when they were both going to be mad at him, but it’d be better to get this whole apology thing over with before Joan yelled at him over breakfast or something. Being on the receiving end of Joan’s anger usually wasn’t fun. 

Roman carefully turned the door handle to not make too much noise, and pushed the door open a bit slowly to try and avoid the inevitable creak for as long as possible. 

“Thomas? Joan?” He said, keeping his voice low, and switched on the lamp closest to the door--

Only to find both beds totally empty. 

Huh. 

“Are they okay?”

Roman jumped, whipping around as fast as lightning, only to see Patton standing in the hallway in his pajamas, a concerned expression written across his face. 

“ _Jesus_ , Patton, give me a warning or something before you just pop up like that.” 

“I just walked down the hall.” Patton said, shrugging his shoulders. “I figured you would’ve heard me. Are they sleeping?” 

“Well, they’re not even here, so I don’t know.” Roman said, and stepped back into the hall, closing the door behind him. “Logan said he didn’t see anyone else awake, but maybe they’re in the basement, or something. How late did they get back last night?” 

“Oh, uh...I don’t know.” Patton said.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Roman asked, tilting his head to the side. “You said you were gonna’ stay awake and wait for them.” 

“Yeah, I tried to.” Patton rubbed the back of his neck. “I fell asleep on the couch before they came back. Woke up super early by accident, but by that point, I figured they were probably upstairs and that I could check on them in the morning and went to bed.” 

“So...no one saw them come back?” Roman asked, and a cold kind of fear was beginning to settle in his stomach. “Like at all?” 

“I mean….maybe Logan just forgot to mention he’d seen them this morning?” Patton suggested, his voice deceptively light-hearted as Roman could see the same kind of fear starting to surface behind Patton’s eyes. “He’s...he can be forgetful, yeah?” 

“Logan never forgets things, you know that.” Roman said, and started back down the stairs, no longer caring about the noise he could be making. “Check the basement, Pat, I’ll ask him again.” 

Roman could see Patton nod out of the corner of his eye, and it took a lot of sudden concentration to keep from sprinting back to the kitchen. It was fine, right? It was probably fine. Maybe this was a revenge prank. Roman wouldn’t put it past the two of them. Pointless to get everyone else worried about what could be nothing. 

Still, he cringed as he opened the kitchen door with a bit more zeal than he wanted to show. He could see Logan jump, nearly dropping what was left of his toast. 

“You’re sure you didn’t see Thomas or Joan this morning?” He asked, and Remus immediately looked back up. Roman knew he was a good actor, of course, but no matter what act he put on, he knew Remus would be able to see straight through it and hear the fear that he was trying so desperately to keep hidden. Nothing was secret between the two of them, after all. 

“Yes, I’m sure.” Logan said, and his voice had suddenly become cautious. Maybe Roman wasn’t being as good of an actor as he usually was. “Why, did something happen?” 

“They’re not in their room. Neither one of them.” Roman said. “I mean, they could be hiding in the basement or something, maybe trying to scare us back, but...I don’t know, Patton said he didn’t see them come back last night.” 

It would have honestly been impressive how quickly Remus seemed to just _forget_ that he was viciously hungover with a splitting headache as he stood up if Roman wasn’t quietly freaking out on the inside. 

“If something happened to them, we’re both dead, man.” Remus said, and immediately left the kitchen, pushing past Roman without a second thought. Roman could hear him yelling the second he got out of the kitchen, not seeming to give two shits about the other people sleeping in the lodge. “Thomas! Joan! I didn’t do shit, so if this is some kind of revenge thing on Ro, I get it, he’s a dick, but you better show your faces right now--” 

“Remus, dude, you’re gonna wake everyone up.” Roman said, heading after his twin, only to spot Patton running back into the room, slightly out of breath from running up the stairs from the basement. 

“Basement’s empty.” He said. “Not many places to hide, either, so I don’t think they’re down there. You don’t think they spent the whole night outside, do you?” 

“No, they would’ve frozen. Thomas didn’t have a coat, Joan only had the one.” Roman said. “They’ve got to be in here somewhere, right? I mean...right?” 

“What the hell is goin’ on?” Roman looked up to see Virgil leaning against the banister at the top of the stairs, clearly irritated. Emile, Remy and Dee weren’t too far behind him. “It’s _vacation_ . Don’t wake me up until at least two if you want to _live_.” 

“Yeah, well, I’ll keep your sleep schedule in mind after we find our siblings.” Remus said. “They’re not in their room.” 

“What do you mean, not in their room?” Emile asked, and it was times like this when Roman suddenly understood why so many people tended to mix Emile and Patton up. His expression was almost an exact copy of Patton’s worry. “They came back last night, right?” 

“We better split up and find out.” Roman said. “Cause if they’re not in here, and we can’t find them, our parents are going to kill every single one of us.” 

***

Two hours later, Roman stood in the middle of the woods, his winter coat thrown hastily over his shoulders. He was shivering, but definitely not because of the cold morning breeze. Remy stood next to him, his hand clasped tightly in Roman’s. He squeezed Roman’s hand for what felt like the thousandth time. 

“They’ll be okay, babes. They’re gonna’ be fine.” 

Roman didn’t feel like everything was going to be okay, not in the slightest. They’d taken the search outside after they’d all looked through every possible inch of the lodge, twice, and found no sign of his younger siblings anywhere. When he’d made it outside, he’d immediately gone in the direction Thomas and Joan had ran, but it was pointless at this point. The snow had been steadily falling the whole night, and any footprints either of them had left behind had long since been covered up, indistinguishable from the rest of the snow. 

Roman sucked in a sharp breath. “We better get back to the lodge.” 

“Why?” Remy raised an eyebrow at him, which made sense. Roman had been absolutely insistent about staying out here until they found Thomas and Joan not ten minutes ago, but reality was starting to set in. Roman never liked reality. Reality was cold, reality was harsh, reality was siblings lost in the frozen woods. 

“Someone’s gotta’ call the police.”


	2. Memento Mori: The Last Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Memories come flooding back all too easily.

**\---- DEE, 8:50 P.M. ----**  
  
 **-TEN HOURS UNTIL DAWN-** **  
  
**

This was a stupid idea.  
  
Dee had known that from the very moment Remus had suggested it. Going back up to the mountain a year after Thomas and Joan’s disappearance seemed less like a recipe for a party, and more like one for several cases of trying and failing to bury guilt and possibly a couple of psychological breakdowns. Maybe Emile could get some practice in before heading off to college, but Dee had a feeling that would be the only good thing that would come out of the weekend at all.  
  
And yet, here he was, the last person left on the bus that only felt a few degrees warmer than the freezing cold air outside, on route to the Blackwood Pines cable car station.  
He knew this was a bad idea, yes. He didn’t want to go back. He had finally been getting around to putting it behind him, to just forget about it and finally let himself accept that their disappearance wasn’t his fault, wasn’t their fault, really, and now he was turning right back and dragging all of the memories from last year back to the surface. All because of Remus.  
He couldn’t help it. Remus had been so excited, he’d actually been smiling, and his eyes had that shine in them again, the same one he used to have whenever he had an idea that was definitely going to get them all in trouble, the one Dee hadn’t seen for a year. He looked like _Remus_ again, and yeah. Dee had missed him. If this was what it took to get the real Remus back, even if there was a gigantic chance it wouldn’t work, Dee was going to go through with it.  
  
Even if it was incredibly stupid.  
  
Just then, the music playing through his earbuds came to a halt as his phone buzzed, and a caller ID labeled “bastard”, accompanied by a blurry picture of Remus flipping off the camera popped up across his screen. Dee rolled his eyes as he answered it. Think of the devil.  
  
“Dude, I’m ten minutes away.” Dee said, not even bothering to say hello. He never seemed to need to when Remus called. “You can’t wait ten more minutes?”  
  
“Cable car station is the last place that has reception. It’s my last chance to be connected with the outside world.” Dee could hear the grin behind Remus’ voice. “Also, you’re the last one left. Everyone else is up on the mountain already, Dee, I’m being _left out_ \--”  
  
“I’m standing right next to you.” Dee heard Logan’s voice, a little fainter than Remus’.  
  
“Yeah, but you don’t count.” Remus said, and Dee smirked as he could hear Logan make an indignant noise in protest. “I got stuff I gotta’ check on, Dee, you’re seriously gonna’ take ten more minutes?”  
  
“I don’t control the speed of the bus.” Dee said. “Not like it’s snowing or anything. Going through the mountains at lightning speed isn’t a good idea. Whatever stuff you have to check on, it can wait.”  
  
“I have the key to the lodge, everyone’ll be stuck outside until I get up there.”  
  
“You should’ve given it to Roman if you were going to wait for me.”  
  
“Okay, maybe, but you know I never think that far ahead.” Remus said, throwing in an over dramatic sigh for good measure. “You’re seriously gonna be ten more minutes?”  
  
“No, Remus, I’m a time traveler. I’ll be there in five seconds.” Dee deadpanned.  
  
“Ugh, okay.” Remus said. “Look, I really gotta’ get up there before Roman realizes he shoulda’ reminded me to give him the key. Can Logan wait for you instead?”  
  
“Oh. Great. So I’m being voluntold, now.” Logan’s voice spoke up.  
  
“I know the way to the cable car station, Ree. I don’t need a cable car buddy like I’m in first grade.” Dee said.  
  
“Yeah, well. It’s cold and dark and spooky. And awesome.” Remus huffed, but Dee could hear the words he didn’t say more clearly -- _I don’t want anyone getting lost_. “So Logan’s gonna’ wait for you. Deal?”  
  
Dee could argue with him, if he tried. He tended to be pretty good at arguing, after all, and if he could get Logan on his side about this, Remus would be no match for them.  
  
“Yeah, sure. Deal.” Dee said. “I’ll see you up there.”  
  
“See ya’ when you get here in _four days_.”  
  
“I’m not even that late, dude--”  
  
“Can’t hear you!” Remus said in a sing-song voice, right before he hung up.  
  
Dee couldn’t help but snort a laugh as Remus’ voice cut out, and leaned his head against the window as his music started back up again. His doubts about the weekend were still there, of course, he was definitely planning on keeping an eye on Remus when he could to make sure he was really okay, but he’d spent a year watching the shine behind his eyes shrivel up and die. He’d spent a year hearing Remus’ laugh come out hollow, his smile forced, the circles under his eyes grow darker. If he could see the real Remus come back because of this trip?  
  
This whole thing would be worth it.   
  


***  
  


That revelation didn’t stop the tense feeling in Dee’s chest from coming back the moment he stepped off the bus to see the familiar Blackwood Pines sign hanging above the gate. He’d already been reliving a couple of memories, sure, but actually being at the base of the mountain threw everything back at him with a clarity that made him feel vaguely nauseous.  
  
He shook his head in a futile attempt to clear it, and pushed open the small wooden gate that led to the path up to the cable car station. He really needed to stop thinking about last year. If he kept thinking about it, then his prediction of the whole weekend going to shit was way more likely to come true, and--  
  
Dee was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard an unnatural rustling noise coming from a little further off of the path, hidden in the thicker woods.  
  
“Hello?” He said, raising an eyebrow in the direction of the noise. “Remus?”  
  
It would be a totally Remus move to pull, honestly. Lying to him about going up to the mountain just so he could pop out and scare him, an easy way to get him back for being late. But Remus would have popped up the moment he knew he’d been caught, he always did (with a pout and ten minutes of complaining about Dee ‘ruining his fun’), and the woods stayed silent even after Dee called out. Dee shrugged it off, and kept walking down the path, his footsteps crunching the freshly fallen snow below him. Oh, well. It was probably a squirrel or a deer, or something. There were a lot of animals around the mountain. He didn’t need to be freaked out over nature.  
  
The path was pretty makeshift at this point, which always felt like a pretty big tone shift from the rest of the lodge, considering how lavish it was. It felt strange to be walking down a small dirt path towards what was basically a secluded mansion on its own mountain. Nothing made that juxtaposition more clear than when Dee caught sight of the significantly larger iron-wrought gate that blocked the rest of the path, keeping any unwanted visitors away from the cable car station.  
  
“What’s even the point of two gates.” Dee muttered to himself as he walked up to it, catching sight of a piece of paper haphazardly taped to it. “I hope I’m this rich one day. Hey, honey, you know what we need, _an extra gate_ \--”  
  
He cut himself off as he noticed Remus’ unmistakable mess of scribbles he called handwriting across the sheet of paper. He reached out, tearing the sign down as he read it (no one else was coming after him, anyway) --

_Gate’s busted. CLIMB OVER!!!! --Remus_

“Oh, _seriously_?” Dee asked no one in particular, and folded up the paper, slipping it in his pocket. He could throw it away at the lodge. If he ever got there, that was.  
  
It didn’t take too long to figure out that Remus wasn’t being entirely crazy by insisting that everyone climb over the gate. Just by glancing to the left, Dee spotted the uneven stone wall built up around the gate, with stones jutting out in a seemingly random pattern all along the wall. It was practically asking to be climbed, with plenty of places to serve as hand and footholds, and Dee could see a few places where the snow had already been displaced from when the others must’ve come through. He snorted at the mental image of Remy climbing up a stone wall, dragging his no-doubt giant suitcase behind him, and headed over to the wall, reaching up to find a handhold.  
  
“Now this is even more stupid.” He muttered to himself, grunting slightly as he managed to pull himself up. “We need two gates, but you know what we should totally do? Make the second gate easily climbable so it serves no virtual purpose-- fuck--”  
  
He scraped his hands just slightly on the rough stone at the top of the wall as he yanked himself over it, taking a second to find his balance. The top of the wall was flat, which made it pretty easy to sit down and push off of it, landing safely in the snow below.  
  
“There we go.” Dee said, dusting the snow off of himself as he straightened up. “Take that, you dumbass gate.”  
  
Okay, maybe he should have Logan around if he was going to start talking to himself.  
  
He started back down the path again, only now, the path was significantly wider, and several lanterns were set up along it, making it feel significantly less creepy. At least, that was probably the effect they were going for. The memories from last year were persistent, and they kept yelling for attention at the back of his head, especially now that he was finally catching sight of things that were more closely associated with the lodge. He could remember every second of it, really, despite the fact that he’d definitely been a little more than buzzed when it happened. He remembered hiding behind the couch and laughing along with the others when Thomas had shrieked, sure, but what really stuck out to him were the memories from the morning after. He’d never seen Remus so panicked, and he’d looked so dead inside when they were all waiting by cable car station for the police to finish searching, only for a couple of them to come back and tell that they hadn’t found any traces so far, but they would keep looking, but Remus had seemed to just accept that as a death sentence. He’d just deflated right there, and shoved Dee away when he’d tried to set a hand on his shoulder, to try and offer him some reassurance, they would find them, it would be okay --  
  
But the police hadn’t found them. Not a trace. And now the eight of them were going back up there again, and Dee honestly wasn’t sure if Remus wanted to do this just to bury the past or if he was trying to dig it up again, like he hoped he’d be able to find Thomas and Joan this time--  
  
Dee forced his brain to shut up as the cable car station came into view. Logan would be here, and while Logan wasn’t exactly great at dealing with emotions, he was definitely the most perceptive out of all of them. He’d know something was up with Dee the moment he saw him if Dee was thinking about things like this, and the last thing Dee needed was to start this weekend off on a bad foot.  
  
Except for the fact that Logan wasn’t even there.  
  
Dee raised an eyebrow as he got closer to the cable car station. The small porch that wrapped around the front of it held a bench, and nothing else. The only thing that even indicated that Logan had even been there at all was the fact that his familiar dark blue and black backpack was still on the bench, but Logan himself was nowhere to be seen.  
  
“Logan?” Dee called, walking up to the porch. “You here? Cause if you left me to head up to the lodge with Remus but expect me to get your bag for you, you got another thing coming.”  
  
The porch creaked as Dee stepped onto it, shaking some of the snow off of his boots. As he approached Logan’s bag, though, he could hear a faint buzzing noise go off. He hadn’t noticed it before, since it blended in with the dark colors of Logan’s backpack, but the front pocket had been left open just enough that Logan’s phone was poking out. The screen had brilliantly lit up as it buzzed, alerting Dee -- _one new message_.  
  
Honestly, who the hell was texting Logan right now?  
  


**Should Dee:**  
  
 **Snoop?** **or** **Close Bag?**

**You Chose:**

**Close Bag -- 8/9 votes**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The adventure begins.
> 
> Remember to vote in the comments below!
> 
> Also, keep in mind that while these choices are going to affect the story, these first few ones aren't going to have too many far-reaching or deadly effects. I want everyone to be able to get into the swing of things and get used to the whole system before we really start this party. :)


	3. Memento Mori: No Turning Back Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's on the mountain, and Virgil has made an all-too-easy mistake.

**-YOU CHOSE: CLOSE BAG-  
  
**

Dee rolled his eyes and pushed Logan’s phone back into the pocket, zipping it up properly this time. For a guy as smart as Logan was, it was surprising how scatterbrained he could get. He sometimes ended up as a walking juxtaposition -- the guy could remember formulas and element compositions at the drop of a hat, but couldn’t remember to zip up his own backpack?  
  
“Dee?”  
  
Dee jumped at the sound of Logan’s voice despite the familiarity of it. He turned sharply to see Logan standing at the corner of the porch, just before it disappeared around the other side of the building. Oh. So that’s where he’d been.   
  
“Damn it, don’t do that.”  
  
“Do what?” Logan asked.  
  
“Just pop out of the darkness.” Dee said. “I didn’t even hear footsteps, how’d you just appear like that?”  
  
“You’re confusing me with Virgil.” Logan said, his lips quirking up into a slight smile as he walked towards Dee. “I heard you saying my name and walked over here. You must’ve been paying too much attention to my backpack instead of your surroundings.”  
  
“It was the only thing here I could even see.” Dee said, and crossed his arms over his chest. “Besides, I just closed it. Your phone was falling out, buzzing about some message.”  
  
“Oh, cool. Thanks. Probably just Patton.” Logan said, and slung his backpack over his shoulder. “By the way, cable car’s heading back from when Remus took it up. It’ll probably be here in two minutes or so.”  
  
“Don’t care if it’s coming back or not, let’s just get in the cable car station before I freeze to death out here.” Dee muttered, stuffing his hands in his pockets as if that would help. They were already gloved, anyway.  
  
“There’s no heating in the station, it’s open--”  
  
“I know that. Sooner we get in the station, sooner we get in the car, sooner we get up on the mountain, et cetera, et cetera, until I end up in front of a fire. Cool?” Dee said, and scowled when Logan raised an eyebrow at him. “What.”  
  
“Nothing.” Logan said, pulling the key to the cable car station out of his pocket. He didn’t meet Dee’s eyes as he headed over to the door, easily popping the lock open. “You just seem a little on edge, that’s all.”  
  
“I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, and you popping up out of nowhere and freaking me out does not help.” Dee said, and headed through the door when Logan opened it.  
“Hey, wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t trying to scare you.”  
  
Dee knows it’s not Logan’s fault. He really does. It’s just the easiest thing to point out without getting Logan seriously concerned. Logan doesn’t need to know the reason Dee didn’t get any sleep last night. He doesn’t need to hear about the sudden plague of nightmares that came full force out of nowhere, despite the fact that Dee had known he was going on the trip for weeks already, and no nightmares had made an appearance before then. Maybe it was just the fact that the trip was so close it suddenly felt inevitable. He didn’t know for sure, but really, all that mattered was that he was exhausted and cold, and that usually made for a more-than-slightly-grumpy Dee.  
  
“I know, but still.” Dee said, watching as Logan closed and locked the door to the station behind them. No need to keep it open when no one else was coming, after all, but remembering that he was the last one to show up reminded Dee of something. “Hey, isn’t Patton already on the mountain?”  
  
“Yeah?” Logan said, glancing back at Dee with a confused look on his face. “Everyone’s up on the mountain except us. Why?”  
  
“Didn’t you just say that message on your phone was probably from Patton? I thought there was no signal up there.”  
  
“There’s not.” Logan said. “It’s from earlier. We were talking before he got to the mountain, and my phone started losing signal on the ride up here. It’s probably just now loading a couple messages from him that I missed.”  
  
There was an opening there to tease him, and based on the slightly sheepish look on Logan’s face, he knew it just as well as Dee did. Dee knew just as well as everyone else that Logan and Patton had basically been dancing around each other since high school had begun, but both of them were way too worried that the other didn’t feel the same way. It was almost infuriating to watch them pine like idiots, but on the upside, at least the rest of them got some good teasing mileage out of the situation.  
  
“Unlike you to miss messages from Patton. You’re not gonna’ check to see what it says?” Dee asked, and Logan’s cheeks turned slightly pink in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.  
  
“It’s probably nothing -- hey, the cable car’s almost here.” He said. It was a terrible excuse to change the subject, but Dee let it slide. He had the whole weekend to mess with him, anyway.  
  
“I thought you said it was closer than that.” Dee said, glancing out of the station to see the cable car coming towards them. Very, very _slowly_.  
  
“It’s not exactly easy to see it from outside the station.” Logan said, and leaned against the railing that separated the solid floor of the station deck from the sharp drop of the cliffside below. “Besides, it goes faster than it seems.”  
  
“Mhm.” Dee hummed, and absentmindedly wandered towards the back of the station, where the door to the little office, which had probably been used for some type of security at some point, had been left ajar. There was probably nothing in there that Dee would call exciting, but hey, anything would be better than watching a cable car crawl its way toward the station.  
  
Just as Dee suspected, there wasn’t anything in there that really caught his attention all that much. A simple desk and swivel chair that looked like it hadn’t been sat in for years, a couple decaying posters tacked up on the walls that proudly advertised the Blackwood Hotel and Sanitorium (Dee would be forever confused by the people who made that decision. Who was the genius that thought putting a hotel right next to a sanitorium and parading it around as a package deal was a good idea?), and a couple monitors that were still on, probably thanks to Remus switching on the security cameras for safekeeping.  
  
Dee’s eyes passed over them, until one flickering image in his peripheral vision caught his eye. He turned to look back at the flickering monitor, but nothing was there. Just a slightly staticky image of the empty porch outside the station. Huh.  
  
Maybe he was starting to see things. Christ, he really did need some sleep.  
  
“Hey, Dee?” Logan’s voice called from outside the office, snapping Dee out of his thoughts. “Come on, the car’s in the station.”  
  
Oh, wow. Logan had been right, that was a lot faster than it had seemed. Of course, Logan was usually right, so Dee wasn’t too shocked.  
  
“Nice.” Dee said, stepping out of the office door to see Logan already standing in the car, leaning slightly out of the door to make sure he was coming. “Adventure begins, and all that.”  
  
“Not much of an adventure, really.” Logan said, stepping back and sitting down on the cable car’s bench as Dee came inside, sitting down next to him. “At least, I hope it won’t be one. I’ve had enough adventures on this mountain.”  
  
“Yeah. I hear that.” Dee said, leaning his head back against the window of the car. It jolted as it started back up the cable, and Dee saw Logan jump out of the corner of his eye. It was subtle, but definitely there, and enough to prove to Dee that he wasn’t the only one on edge about the trip. “Hey. Do you think this whole thing was a good idea?”  
  
“Absolutely not.” Logan sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “At least, I don’t think it’s a good idea for a party. I think that Remus thinks it will help, but it likely won’t.”  
  
“Then why are you even here?” Dee asked, raising an eyebrow. Logan wasn’t the type to go running headfirst into situations that he didn’t like. In fact, he was usually the one keeping Remus from doing just that.  
  
“Same as you, probably.” Logan sighed. “He looked so excited. And I know this whole thing is a bad idea, but it was nice to see my best friend again. It’s been a while since he’s seemed that happy. I missed hearing him come up with some batshit crazy ideas. Y’know?”  
  
Dee was quiet for a moment.  
  
“Yeah.” He said. “Yeah, I get that.”  
  
Dee could feel Logan’s eyes on him. He must not have been doing a very good job of keeping up the appearance that he didn’t care. He’d have to get that under control before he got to the mountain. Thank God Logan wasn’t usually the type to tease him about things like this.  
  
“Besides, it’s going to be fine. We’re all just stressed about what happened last year.” Logan said, and he sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than he was trying to convince Dee. “The worst that’s going to happen is that Roman or Remus will get upset, and the trip ends early. That’s all that’ll happen this year.”  
  
Dee wanted to believe that, and things were always a lot easier to believe when they were coming from Logan. And yet, there was still an unpleasant turning in his gut, as if something in him was warning him that even if Logan didn’t know it, he was lying.  
  
“Yeah.” Dee repeated, and he was beginning to feel like he was getting himself stuck in a loop of false reassurances to himself.  
  
“It’s going to be fine.”   
  


**\---- VIRGIL, 9:17 P.M. ----  
  
**

God, it was _freezing_ out here.  
  
Virgil was sitting on the bench outside of the cable car station on the mountain, a ten minute walk away from the lodge. His hood was up and his hands were gloved, but other than that, he didn’t show any sort of indication of minding the cold. Virgil tended to like the cold, anyway -- it gave him an excuse to let himself drown in warmer winter clothes, which was basically half of his closet, anyway. Not to mention, the light snowfall and the way his breath made little clouds in the air in front of him was strangely calming in a way, and Virgil would usually take whatever he could get that would calm him down.  
  
Speaking of calming him down, he had the note out of his pocket and unfolded again, and was absentmindedly running his fingers over the red cursive letters that he’d already read over a million times. 

_Meet you outside the station first night of the trip <3_ _  
__-R_

Virgil had found that note stuffed in his locker on the last day before winter break, and he hadn’t even needed to read the signature before he knew who it was. Roman was the only person he knew who insisted on using red ink for practically everything, and the only person he knew who wrote in cursive most of the time. Last year, Virgil thought it was obnoxiously pretentious. Last year, he would hide Roman’s red pens whenever he got the chance. Last year, he would’ve told him he was being way too extra.  
  
Funny how quickly Roman turned him into a total sap for this stuff.  
  
Virgil’s head snapped up when he heard the telltale noise of a cable car pulling into the station, and quickly shoved the note back into his coat pocket. It wasn’t Roman, Roman was somewhere else on the mountain helping Remus to set things up and make sure the lodge was ready for people to be staying there after a year of sitting abandoned. Virgil didn’t need anyone else seeing that note and putting two and two together. Neither he nor Roman had been very vocal about the fact that they were far from enemies at this point.  
  
He stood up when the door to the station opened, and Logan walked out, clearly in a conversation with Dee, who was right behind him.  
  
“All I’m saying is that he’s insane, and insanity has a tendency to interest me.”  
  
“Uh-huh. You just don’t want to admit you’re just as crazy as he is when it comes to experiments, and that’s why you get along -- oh, hey, Virgil.” Dee said, breaking away from the conversation as he noticed Virgil standing there.  
  
“Hey.” Virgil said. “You guys the last ones up?”  
  
“Should be.” Logan said. “Did Remus get up here okay?”  
  
“Yeah, he came barreling through here ten minutes ago.” Virgil shrugged. “Did you think the cable car spit him out over the mountain, or something?”  
  
“Just checking.” Logan said. “Never sure with him.”  
  
“Fair, I guess.” Virgil said, and shifted awkwardly where he was standing when he realized that Dee was looking at him with a curious sort of expression on his face. On Dee, that expression didn’t usually mean anything good.   
  
“What are you doing waiting here?” Dee asked. “Thought you’d be up at the lodge.”  
  
“Roman asked me to make sure that everyone got up here safely while he’s helping Remus set things up.” Virgil said, the same excuse he’d been rehearsing in his head for a couple of days, but he cringed just slightly as he said it. He’d spoken too quickly. It must’ve sounded rehearsed, and that was exactly what he’d been trying to avoid.  
  
The smirk that came over Dee’s face told Virgil everything he needed to know about how convincing he’d been.  
  
“Roman told you to do something and you just did it?” He asked. “Thought you hated him.”  
  
“It’s not even a big deal. I was gonna’ get here earlier anyway, I figured I could help.” Virgil said, and it was honestly a miracle that he didn’t stumble over any of those words.  
  
“You figured you could help Roman. As in the guy that you’ve spent years trying to piss off -- hey, what’s that?”  
  
Virgil was pretty sure he could feel his heart stop as Dee was suddenly pointing at his coat pocket, and Virgil glanced down to see a corner of the note sticking out of his pocket, just enough to see some of the red pen across the paper. Not enough to read it, thank god, but still plenty enough to give things away.  
  
 _Shit._

~~**Should Virgil:  
  
** **Dismiss** **or** **Admit**~~   
~~_"It’s nothing.”_ ~~ _~~“Just a note."~~   
  
**VOTING NOW CLOSED** _

_\--------_

_Butterfly Effect Discovered:_ _  
__Close Bag - Dee Didn’t Steal Virgil’s Note_  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whenever an outcome that was decided based on one of your previous decisions has come to pass, I'll let you guys know what it was through a "Butterfly Effect Discovered" notice at the end of the chapter! Some chapter may not have these at all, and others might have a couple, it all depends on the choices you make!


	4. Memento Mori: Secrets, Secrets, Are No Fun

**-YOU CHOSE: ADMIT-**

Well, there were probably worse ways for the two of them to find out. After all, they were on vacation at a lodge with several bedrooms and no parents for miles around. Out of all the possible ways for the others to find out he and Roman were a thing, Virgil definitely preferred _forgot to hide his note_ to _forgot to lock the door.  
_  
“It’s just a note.” He said, pulling the slip of paper completely out of his pocket and flashing it in Dee and Logan’s direction. “Happy?”  
  
“What’s Roman doing writing you love notes?” Dee asked, and if Virgil didn’t know him any better, he’d almost think Dee was genuinely curious.  
  
But he did know him, and therefore, saw the giveaway gleam in his eye that Dee always seemed to get when he realized someone wasn’t telling everything they knew.  
  
“Who says they’re love notes?” Virgil asked.  
  
“Oh, please.” Dee smirked. “Red pen is always Roman, yes, but he doesn’t go that extra on the cursive unless he’s trying to impress.”  
  
“And you know that how?”  
  
“I know a lot of things.”  
  
“Heard your grade point average says otherwise.” Virgil bit back, and didn’t miss Logan’s slight snort of amusement, or Dee’s sudden glare in Logan’s direction. Sure, it might have been a low blow, but Dee pretty much had Virgil cornered, and should have expected the subsequent lashing out. Virgil was afraid of...well, a lot of things, but hitting people where it hurt most wasn’t one of them.  
  
Unfortunately, Dee didn’t have that problem, either.  
  
“Oh my god, wait. Don’t tell me.” He said, turning back to look at Virgil with an air of false surprise, and Virgil couldn’t help but tense, his fingers curling into a loose fist. “You’re not the reason Remy and Roman split, are you?”  
  
“I”m not!” Virgil said, and thank god that was the truth. Hell. he would hate himself if he’d done that to Remy, he couldn’t even imagine how the others would see him. “I wouldn’t do that.”   
  
“I don’t know, Virgil, we’re all learning so much about you today.” Dee smirked, and Virgil resisted the urge to punch him. “Come on, spill. What happened? What’d Remy do to make you want to steal away his boyfriend?”  
  
“I told you I didn’t.” Virgil muttered, glaring in Dee’s direction. “...it happened a couple weeks after they broke up, I wouldn’t mess around with my best friend’s boyfriend.”  
  
“Wait. Hang on.” Logan cut in, staring at Virgil with a look that Virgil could only describe as astonishment. “You’re actually with Roman? That doesn’t seem like you.”  
  
“Yeah, well. Things change.” Virgil said, shifting awkwardly where he stood as he slipped the note back into his pocket. “People change. That’s not news.”  
  
And it wasn’t, not really. They all had firsthand experience with that idea. Everyone knew that both Roman and Remus had definitely changed after last year. It had been bizarre, seeing the Sanders twins so reserved, so quiet, so _fragile_. Not that Virgil was trying to take advantage or anything, it had just been...unsettling. Virgil hadn’t expected to ever see a side of Roman that was more than just complete arrogance, and he certainly hadn’t expected to fall for it.  
  
“Hold on. Rewind. A couple _weeks_?” Dee asked. “Oh, and Remy’s going to be here, too. This is going to be _fun_.”  
  
“Remy knows, dipshit.” Virgil snapped. “We talked about it. It’s fine.”  
  
“Mhm. Sure.”  
  
“Alright. What if we didn’t start the weekend off by antagonizing each other?” Logan said, and Dee rolled his eyes.  
  
“I’m not antagonizing. I’m _curious._ ” He said.  
  
“You are not simply curious, you are a borderline compulsive liar and you are very much antagonizing.” Logan said, and Virgil didn’t even try to hide the little smile that came over his face. At least there was one other person on this mountain who would be willing to call Dee out on his bullshit. “Now, please don’t make me have to drag the both of you up to the lodge whilst you nearly kill each other verbally.”  
  
“Yeah, uh, I’m actually going to wait here.” Virgil said. As much as insulting Dee the whole way up to the lodge sounded like a battle he might be able to win, he had actually managed to relax a little bit when he’d just been sitting alone in the cold. That was rare enough. Besides, he had a boyfriend to meet, and god only knew what he had planned to surprise him with.  
  
“Why?” Logan asked, raising an eyebrow. “We’re the last two, we’ve already told you that.”  
  
“Aww.” Dee cut in before Virgil could even open his mouth to explain. “Don’t you get it, Lo, he’s waiting for Roman. Plan some alone time before the big weekend, did you?”  
  
Virgil’s eyebrows knit together in a perfect, experienced death glare, and apparently, that said all he needed to say to get Dee to laugh.  
  
“Come on, Dee, let’s go.” Logan said. He grabbed Dee’s wrist, smartly dragging him off before he could say anything else that would undoubtedly make Virgil want to give Dee a black eye.  
  
“You just really have to take the fun out of everything, don’t you?”  
  
“Ignoring you.” It was getting harder to hear Logan’s voice as he and Dee got further away, and soon enough, Virgil was left hearing nothing but the wind blowing over the mountain. His shoulders slumped in relief.  
  
Well. That could have gone better. 

**\-- EMILE, 9:24 P.M. --**

“Why is this mountain so damn big?”  
  
Emile couldn’t help but smile as his boyfriend grumbled, lugging his oversized suitcase behind him. He couldn’t really help it. Remy complained about pretty much everything, even when he didn’t really mean it, and Emile knew for a fact that ending up at a fancy lodge that could practically double as a resort would be plenty to keep him actually happy, even if they did have to fight their way up a very tall and very cold mountain.  
  
“Because...it’s a mountain?” Emile suggested, and immediately was on the receiving end of one of Remy’s infamous glares. He held up his hands in partial surrender, the smile still easy on his face. “Look, I don’t know what you want from me, here. If it wasn’t big, it wouldn’t be a mountain, it’d just be called a hill.”  
  
“Well, maybe they should put more lodges on hills. My arm hurts from lugging this thing around.” Remy said, glancing back at his suitcase. Emile’s smile fell just slightly as he watched Remy. Sure, Remy liked complaining, but it was a pretty big suitcase, all things considered.  
  
“You sure you don’t want help? My backpack’s not very heavy, we could swap for the rest of the way.” Emile suggested, and there it was. The glare across Remy’s face softened ever so slightly, just enough that you could only tell if you knew him well enough. Emile liked to think he did, even if they hadn’t really been dating that long. Four months was hardly an achievement by most standards, even if they were in high school.  
  
Still, Emile wasn’t entirely sure why Remy liked him of all people, so he’d take what he had with no complaining on his part.  
  
“I’m fine, babe.” Remy promised, the prior annoyance in his voice disappearing. “Just bitching. I promise.”  
  
“Alright, if you’re sure.” Emile said and shrugged his shoulders, continuing on ahead.  
  
“Yeah, I’m sure. Besides, we’re like….five minutes out. It’s fine.” Remy said, following after him. “Look, we’re getting close enough that I’m already getting chills. It’s a sign.”  
  
Emile couldn’t blame him for that. It felt creepy being back up on the mountain again, even after a whole year. Like not enough time had passed. He wasn’t even sure why they had gone back, especially when Remy hadn’t seemed all too thrilled about the idea when the twins first suggested it. Neither of them owed Roman anything (well, maybe Roman thought Emile did, but it’s not as if he tried anything with Remy while he and Roman were together), and they were barely friends with Remus, so...maybe they were just here for moral support? After everything that happened last year, Emile wouldn’t be surprised if the twins needed it.  
  
“It’ll be fine.” Emile assured him. “Might be a little strange to see everyone up here again, but I think...I think it might be a good thing. I think Roman and Remus might just be looking for closure. It’ll be good for them to have friends around while they try to get it.”  
  
“Don’t go all future-psychology-student on me.” Remy said, and Emile could feel his cheeks heat up slightly. Okay, yes, maybe he was getting the jump on his college major, but he couldn’t help it. It was interesting. “Pretty sure they just wanted to throw one last rager before graduation. You know how they are.”  
  
“Well,” Emile trailed off slightly, not quite meeting Remy’s eyes. “I know how they were.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Remy asked, and Emile should’ve known Remy would question that.  
  
“Tragedy does weird things to people, Rem.” Emile said, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. “There’s a reason that there’s a difference between counselors and grief counselors. It’s a whole different ball game.”  
  
“I guess.” Remy said, and stared down at the snow at his feet as he walked. “It’s just weird to think about. I mean, I know they changed a lot, but I doubt they stopped loving stuff like --”  
  
“BAH!”  
  
Emile let out a less-than professional yelp and stumbled backward as Roman suddenly popped out from seemingly nowhere, yelling in their faces. Remy screeched and jumped backward, and if Emile’s heart wasn’t a little more focused on rocketing his blood pressure to a very sudden height, it would have melted when he noticed that Remy had instinctively jumped closer to him. Roman, on the other hand, was laughing.  
  
Well. Apparently, the twins hadn’t changed all that much after all.  
  
“Jesus Christ--” Remy said as he managed to catch his breath.  
  
“Holy shit, that was great. Wish I filmed it.” Roman grinned, pushing his hands into his coat pockets. “So, welcome to the mountain, how was the trip up?”  
  
“You’re such a jackass.” Remy grumbled, which earned him a shocked gasp from Roman.  
  
“Wow, hurtful.” He said, the smile quickly returning to his face. “Can’t take a little scare, Rem? Better get used to it, lots of freaky stuff in the woods. Remus has already come up with at least a dozen scary stories to tell around the fireplace.”  
  
“What are you, seven?” Remy shot back, and Emile bit his lip as the smile on Roman’s face faded slightly. “You can’t just pop out and scare people like that.”  
  
“Oh, come on. I barely did anything. Don’t get like this.” Roman said, and oh, god. Emile knew the look on Remy’s face was definitely a genuine one this time. Sure, their breakup might not have been a particularly nasty one, but Remy had a tendency to hold grudges, no matter how small they were. This could get ugly. 

~~**Should Emile:  
  
** **Play Along or Dissuade  
** " _Good one, Roman.”_ _“Let’s not fight.”  
_~~

_VOTING CLOSED_

_\----------_

_Butterfly Effect Discovered:_ _  
__Virgil Admits to the Note -- Logan and Dee Know About Virgil and Roman’s Relationship_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, I know this is two days late, and i'm sorry :( between college finals and The Episode and a couple of other projects i've had to work on, this got pushed to the wayside a bit. i'm going to extend the voting time to next monday, and the chapter will still come out two saturdays from now to get us back on track :)
> 
> SPEAKING OF THE EPISODE (spoilers): I'm actually not going to be changing Dee's name to Janus for this AU. Don't get me wrong, I love the name Janus (it was actually one of my name theories and my favorite possible name choice, so ya girl is Stoked), but I also have a bit of backstory about why his name is Dee that I like for this AU, so I'm going to keep it.


	5. Memento Mori: Pacify

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emile finds out some news, and Patton gets spooked.

**-YOU CHOSE: DISSUADE-**

“Okay, here me out.” Emile said, and stepped forward slightly. He wasn’t quite in between the two of them, but he was definitely forward enough to gain attention. Sitting in the background made it all too easy for him to be ignored. “What if we didn’t kick off the weekend by fighting?”

“Em--” Remy started, and sure, Emile was probably going to regret this later, but he kept talking anyway.

“No, I’m serious. Look, I get that this is kind of awkward, with the whole, uh, relationship thing. We knew it was going to be awkward when we all got here, so what if we just acknowledge it now, get it over with, and spend the rest of the weekend actually having a good time?”

Remy opened his mouth again, presumably to argue, but before he could say anything, Roman sighed.

“Yeah, actually. You’re right, dude, this weekend’s going to suck ass if we’re doing this the whole time.” He said, and the angry frown across Remy’s face was suddenly replaced with bewilderment as he turned back towards Roman.

“Wait, seriously? You’re going to be mature?”

“Oh, come on, give me some credit, will you?” Roman asked, but there was a slight smile across his face. “I can figure out when to quit, y’know. As much as I look like Remus, we’re not completely identical.”

“Surprising on so many levels.” Remy said, and, thankfully, the harshness behind his voice had disappeared. At least for the time being. “Just don’t keep popping out of the woods and scaring people like a fuckin’ psychopath.”

“God, you really are no fun.”

“So...we’re good, then?” Emile asked, glancing back and forth between the two of them. “For the weekend, at least?”

“All good on my end.” Roman said. Both he and Emile immediately turned to look at Remy, who scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Fine. Whatever. Quit looking at me like that.” He said. “I’m not always a drama queen.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Roman said, and the easy smile returning to his face made the knot in Emile’s stomach unravel. Cool. Good. No fighting. This could work. “Anyways, I’m gonna’ head down and check on the cable car, make sure everyone’s up here.”

“Meet you up at the lodge later, then?” Emile asked, watching as Roman walked past them, heading back down the trail.

“Yeah, sure.” Roman said, and faced them, walking backwards. “I’ll probably be up in like...forty minutes, or something. Tell Remus not to wait up.”

“Gotcha.” Emile said, and shifted his backpack on his shoulders before he noticed the slight smirk that had suddenly made an appearance on Remy’s face.

“Forty minutes is a long time to check on a cable car.” He said, and maybe it was the cold, but Emile could swear that Roman’s cheeks turned slightly pinker than they had been ten seconds ago.

“Very funny.” Roman said, and casually flipped Remy off before turning back around, quickly disappearing down the way they had come.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Emile asked, raising an eyebrow at Remy and Remy hoisted his suitcase back up.

“Hm?” Remy asked, and a look of realization came over his face. “Oh, yeah. Damn, I never told you, did I?”

“Told me what?”

“I doubt it’ll be a secret for much longer if they plan to take advantage of the weekend.” Remy shrugged. “Roman’s with Virgil now. It’s like a whole thing.”

He said it so casually it was almost hard for Emile to take him seriously. Roman and Virgil? As in, the same Virgil that had essentially made it his life’s mission to antagonize Roman?

“Seriously? Doesn’t seem like them.” Emile said, looking down the path where Roman had disappeared. “And you’re okay with it?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Remy asked, and started walking back towards the lodge with Emile following close behind. 

“Uh, because Virgil’s your best friend? And I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I’d think that your best friend getting together with your ex is something you wouldn’t take well.”

“Oh, please. I took it fine. I was very mature about the whole situation when I found out. Like an adult.” Remy said.

Emile gave him a look.

“Okay, fine. So maybe I blocked him on all my social media for two weeks and ate my body weight in ice cream over it. So?”

Now that sounded more like his Remy.

“That bad, huh?”

“Yeah, well, it could have been worse.” Remy huffed. “I mean, at least Roman never cheated on me. They didn’t do anything together until a few weeks after we broke up. I would have never spoken to either of them again if they cheated.”

“How’d you even find out?” Emile asked. He hadn’t heard anything about Virgil and Roman being together, and something like that would have definitely been news in their school. If it hadn’t been spread around like wildfire, they were probably trying to keep it a secret, and if Virgil wanted it to be a secret from everyone else, there would be no way he’d want Remy to know. He’d probably feel guilty, or nervous that Remy would explode on him. Emile couldn’t blame him for that.

“I caught them.” Remy said, and oh, god. Virgil must’ve died on the spot. “Hiding in a closet like they were in middle school. I thank God every day that all their clothes were on.”

“Oh, geez.”

“Exactly. Not a great day.” Remy sighed. “Virgil chased after me and apologized about a million times and begged me to keep it a secret.”

“And you did?” Emile asked. Didn’t sound like Remy. Gossip was practically his lifeblood.

“I know, right? Sometimes I surprise even myself.” Remy smirked. “I mean, yeah I was pissed, but...I don’t know. He’s still my best friend, and Roman and I weren’t even together anymore, so it’s not like I have any say over who he hung around with. I almost told people, yeah, but I don’t know. Couldn’t do that to Virgil.”

“Aww, Rem--” Emile started, a soft sort of smile coming over his face.

“Don’t you start.” Remy snapped, but it was way too late for that. Remy always acted way tougher than he was, but Emile knew the truth. He was a big old softie at heart, and Emile loved him for it. “I _almost_ told. I’m not Mother Teresa.”

“It’s sweet, though.” Emile said. “You care about him.”

“Yeah, well, contrary to popular belief, there is a heart somewhere in here.” Remy said. “Now, come on. Let’s get up to the lodge before my ass freezes out here. I don’t feel like losing my best feature, thank you.”

Emile would argue that Remy’s smile was his best feature, but followed him anyway, his own smile easy on his face. 

**\--PATTON, 9:32 P.M.--**

Honestly, Patton got distracted way too easily. He knew that way too well, as did practically everybody else who was going to be on the mountain that weekend.

Knowing that, it was no surprise that instead of heading up to the lodge, Patton had spotted the familiar binocular station on the way up, and had immediately taken a detour to see what he could see.

You couldn’t blame him, really. The mountain had a fantastic view, and aside from that, animals of all sorts called the place home. Sure, the threat of some of the predatory animals worried Patton a little bit, but he couldn’t help but try and look to see if he could see any deer. Fawn season was long past, of course, which bummed him out a little bit, but any sort of deer felt almost magical to him.

The cold of the metal binoculars seeped through Patton’s thin gloves as he held on, turning the binoculars this way and that throughout the forest to see what he could spot. There didn’t seem to be much moving amongst the trees at the moment, but -- there!

Patton shifted the binoculars towards the movement, and almost laughed out loud when he realized that what he’d spotted was no animal, but rather, Roman, hurrying on down the trail towards the cable car.

“Where are you going?” Patton mused aloud, zooming in slightly to see if he could catch a better view of Roman’s face. He wasn’t racing down the trail, so Patton doubted anything was actually wrong, but he was definitely going faster than just a casual stroll. Patton couldn’t really get a great view of his face, but he didn’t seem distressed, so--

“AHH!”

Patton shrieked when a face suddenly popped up very close to his field of vision, accompanied by a scream. He stumbled backwards, nearly completely losing his footing, before he heard all-too-familiar laughter.

“Remus!” Patton said, clutching at his chest as he tried to catch his breath. “You scared me!”

“That’s the idea!” Remus grinned, and pulled himself up over the barrier that separated the binocular station from the untamed mountain woods. “What, you think I’m gonna see you looking all intense and focused and not pop up in your face? You really don’t know me at all.”

“Gosh, you’re awful.” Patton sighed, but there was no real malice behind his words. Remus had a point, he really should have expected it. “Don’t do that again!”

“Aw, don’t be a funsuck.” Remus said, the grin staying steady on his face. “Whatcha’ lookin’ at, anyway? See anything cool, like a bear eating up a fox, or somethin’?”

Remus laughed again at the face Patton pulled, disgusted by the very idea.

“Nothing, really. Just your brother.” Patton shrugged. “He’s heading back towards the cable car like he’s in a hurry about something.”

“Really? Huh.” Remus said, and took a second to glance through the binoculars. “Oh, yeah. There he goes.”

“Do you know why he’d be going down there?” Patton asked, his curiosity returning now that his heartbeat had gone back down to normal.

“Nah. I don’t think -- oh, wait.” The grin on Remus’ face turned to something that would have read as sinister if Patton didn’t know that that was the face Remus pulled when he had dirt on his brother. “He’s probably going to meet Virgil.”

Patton’s brain immediately filled with questions. Meeting Virgil? Roman hated Virgil. Why would he be going in such a hurry to specifically meet Virgil?

On the other hand, the look on Remus’ face made Patton unsure if he even wanted to know. 

~~**Should Patton:** ~~

~~**Pry or Leave it Alone** ~~   
_~~“Why Virgil?” “Oh, okay.”~~_

_VOTING CLOSED_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this first section of the story essentially boils down to "everyone finds out about prinxiety"  
> speaking of which, get prepared for a heaping helping of prinxiety content next chapter, y'all, cause we're looking at The Snowball Fight :)


	6. Memento Mori: No Details, Please

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finding out who's dating through Remus isn't exactly fun, but an impromptu snowball fight definitely is.

**-YOU CHOSE: PRY-** ****

Patton’s curiosity won out, because, really, of course it did. He wouldn’t be surprised if his curiosity ended up being the death of him at some point.

“Why Virgil?” He asked, peering over the mountain in the direction that Roman had disappeared. “Are they getting along? That would be nice.”

“Oh, yeah. Getting along is one way to phrase it.” Remus snorted, only to sigh when Patton looked back at him with a confused expression over his face. “Wait, seriously? You don’t see it -- well, actually, I’m not surprised, knowing you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means they’re banging, dumbass.” Remus said, an easy grin across his face as Patton nearly choked at his words. “You’re lucky you didn’t have to know until now. I get the honor of living in the same house as Roman, and he thinks he’s all sneaky, but he’s not, and I have to hear _everything_ \--”

“Don’t need to hear that!” Patton yelped, covering his ears with his hands. “No thank you, Remus, don’t want to know!”

“Aw, c’mon, Pat, you don’t wanna hear about every single time Virgil’s come over for the past six months in obnoxiously loud detail?” Remus asked, and Patton grimaced.

“Please don’t.”

“You’re no fun.” Remus laughed, and stuck his tongue out at Patton. “Hey, either you hear about it now, or you get to hear it for yourself later. Lodge’s walls aren’t thick, y’know.”

“Oh my gosh, _stop_.” Patton said. “All you needed to tell me was that they’re together now, I didn’t need to know anything else!”

“Prude.” Remus smirked, and leaned back against one of the pillars that held up the gazebo over top of them.

Patton sighed, and picked up his backpack, carefully slinging it back over his shoulder. Remus always had been a little too eager to overshare, he probably should have thought about it before asking him to clarify. Even with the more explicit revelation, though, it was kind of nice to hear that Virgil and Roman were together now. Maybe it would mean there’d be less fighting between the two of them. Sure, it hadn’t usually ever escalated too far, but Patton was the type of person who didn’t like watching his friends fight. They were all friends, after all, they shouldn’t be always trying to tear each other down.

“Y’know, I don’t think Roman would like it if he knew you were talking about him and Virgil like that.” Patton mentioned. “If they didn’t want anyone to know--”

“If they didn’t want anyone to know, they should work on being quieter.” Remus interrupted. “And hey, I’ve been nice about it! I went by the bro code or whatever, didn’t blab to anyone until you asked! They’re gonna’ get caught this weekend anyway, so it’s not like it’ll be a secret for much longer.”

“What makes you so sure?” Patton asked, glancing back at Remus as he started up back towards the lodge, and Remus followed close behind.

“Pat. Come on. Entire weekend. Far away lodge. No parents.” Remus shrugged. “They’re gonna’ get caught. Only a matter of time.”

“I guess so.” Patton said. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just surprised they didn’t want to tell any of us.”

“You know how Virgil is.” Remus said. “He’s so freaked about looking stupid or doing something wrong that he forgets that, y’know, we’re not going to hang him upside down in the town square to point and laugh if he fucks up.”

“Wouldn’t call a relationship a mistake.” Patton pointed out. “It’s sweet that they’re together.”

“Yeah, well. Of course you think it’s sweet, cause you’re all lovey dovey.” Remus said, and Patton felt his cheeks heat up. He wasn’t _that_ bad. “They got together only a couple weeks after Roman and Remy broke things off, though, so I doubt Remy would be super thrilled.”

“Oh.” Patton said. Maybe there wouldn’t be less fighting this weekend, after all. Just a different set of people doing the fighting. He shook his head slightly, trying to clear his thoughts. He definitely didn’t want to walk in expecting any fighting, that would just make him tense for the weekend. “Well, it’s still sweet. I always felt like Virgil liked Roman, he was just kind of...y’know. Bad at showing it? You could kind of tell if you paid attention, though. Like, the little nicknames and stuff.”

“Oh my god, seriously?” Remus asked, glancing over at Patton with an expression that was equals parts amused and annoyed. “Jesus Christ, Patton, you’re fuckin’ ridiculous.”

“What? What’d I say?”

“You didn’t say anything, and that’s the _problem_. You’re blind as hell.”

“I mean, yeah, but what do my glasses have to do with--” Patton asked, but Remus interjected, loudly and effectively cutting him off.

“Nevermind, it’s whatever.” Remus rolled his eyes, and sped up a bit so that he was ahead of Patton just slightly. He turned around to face him, continuing to walk backwards, and opened his hand to show Patton the ring of keys he’d been holding. “C’mon, everyone’s gonna’ be freezing. Race you to the lodge!”

Patton didn’t even have time to answer before Remus went sprinting up the path, and he was left to hurriedly try to catch up. And to wonder what on earth Remus had been talking about. 

**\--VIRGIL, 9:41 P.M.--**

Okay, Virgil didn’t mind the cold, but maybe not for this long. Sitting still with virtually nothing to do but scroll between random apps on his phone that didn’t need wifi (which cut down the list considerably) for thirty minutes meant he didn’t really have much choice than to notice the way the cold was starting to get past his hoodie. Not enough that it was unbearable, but definitely enough to get him to start shivering a bit.

He set his phone down and stuffed his hands into his pockets as the doubt that had been starting to grow in the back of his mind got a bit louder. Roman should’ve been here by now, surely. Maybe he changed his mind. Maybe he didn’t want to give any hints that they were together. Maybe he was just waiting up by the lodge with an explanation and an apology -- or maybe the whole thing was finally settling on Roman’s shoulders and he was realizing that Virgil was just some weird, grief-stricken rebound. Maybe he didn’t want anyone else to know about them, ever, and maybe that realization was making him realize that he didn’t want Virgil at all, that this whole relationship had been a mistake, that--

Virgil snapped out of his spiraling thoughts with a shriek as a snowball suddenly slammed into the wall behind him out of nowhere, breaking into a thousands clumps of snow that dusted over the sleeve of his jacket. The swirling anxieties in his brain suddenly quieted as he heard that all-too-familiar laugh come from a little further away from the cable car station porch, and Virgil couldn’t help but smile.

Funny, how his relationship with Roman tended to be both the source and the brief cure for a lot of his anxiety.

“You did not just do that.” Virgil said, and stood up, his eyes meeting Roman’s. He was standing a few feet away from the porch, a mischievous grin pulling at his lips as his hands were already packing another snowball. Oh. Okay, so that’s how this was going to be.

“Whatcha’ going to do about it if I did, Hot Topic?” Roman asked.

“Don’t test me, Sanders. You really want to start this weekend off with me pissed at you?” Virgil asked, although he knew that the smile across his own face took all the edge off his words. He walked up to the rail that surrounded the fence, and scraped his own handful of snow off of the top of it as subtly as he could. “I thought you didn’t want me to dump your ass.”

“Dump me over a snowball. And you say I’m the dramatic one -- hey!” Roman yelped when Virgil suddenly jumped into action. His snowball wasn’t as well-put-together as Roman’s had been, of course, since he wasn’t trying to make it obvious, but he still managed to fling enough snow in Roman’s direction to make him stumble before he sprinted for the picnic table to hide behind. “Okay, that was so not fair!”

“You wanna’ talk not fair, rewind two minutes!” Virgil called as he crouched behind the picnic table to make a much better snowball. He peeked through the gaps in the wood to keep an eye on Roman, yelping slightly when Roman’s second snowball came flying towards him, spraying the picnic table in snow. “I didn’t even know you were here.”

“Y’know, for someone so anxious, I’d think you’d pay better attention to your surroundings!” Roman called, and Virgil rolled his eyes as he finished packing his snowball. He peered over the picnic table, ready to duck again if a snowball came flying towards him. Instead, he easily spotted Roman this time, his red jacket standing out amongst the white snow. Right at that moment, Roman peeked out from behind his hiding spot, looking towards the picnic table, giving Virgil just enough time to hit him, nailing him directly in the chest.

“Maybe you should pay better attention to yours!” Virgil called, and ran towards another tree. Now that he was exposed, it would be easier for Roman to get a shot on him, he had to move--

Virgil yelped, a laugh escaping him as a snowball hit him in the shoulder, causing him to stumble a bit on the way to his new hiding spot.

“Try moving a bit faster next time, Virge!”

“Oh, bite me.” Virgil snorted a laugh. His fingers were already getting red from the frozen snow, and the time he’d spent just sitting out in the cold hadn’t helped, but he kept at it. Roman had wanted a game, and Virgil would deliver.

He just finished packing another snowball in time to catch Roman in the same way Roman had caught him -- moving to another hiding spot.

“Hey, Roman!” He called, and threw one towards the back of Roman’s head, but just barely missed. The snowball crashed into the ground just passed Roman, and Virgil didn’t even need to see Roman’s face to know that there was a smirk on his lips. He could practically hear it through the way he laughed.

“Not such an easy target now, huh?”

“Don’t get cocky, you haven’t won yet.” Virgil retaliated, ducking back behind his temporary shelter. He wasn’t planning on letting Roman win, even if he wasn’t completely certain what winning actually entailed. Dating or not, he and Roman were always going to have that competitive streak, and Virgil wasn't about to just let him win anything.

Virgil tugged his dark hood up to hide his deep purple hair, just to blend in better with the surrounding dark forest. If Roman wanted to tease him about not seeing what’s right in front of him, Virgil could definitely test out Roman’s abilities. He peeked out from behind the tree, just enough so that he could see a little bit but was still mostly concealed behind the tree. Roman was crouched a couple of yards away, and he looked like he was going to make a run for Virgil’s hiding spot.

“You can’t hide from me, Roman.” Virgil said, another snowball packed tightly in his hand. “But I think I’m pretty good at hiding from you.”

“I know where you are, Incredible Sulk. You’re not sneaky.” Roman said, and Virgil couldn’t help but grin.

“Oh, yeah?” He asked, and took the opportunity to throw his snowball, and beaned Roman directly in the face. He fell back into the snow, a curse escaping him, and Virgil couldn’t help but laugh. “Then how come you didn’t hit me when you had the chance?”

“So not fair.” Roman said, and pushed himself back up to his feet, wiping the snow off his face.

“Who said I was ever playing fair?” Virgil grinned, and he didn’t even care that he was out in the open, completely exposed.

“We’re throwing out being fair?” Roman asked, and the sudden grin that came over his face made Virgil suddenly feel like he might need to run. “Great.”

“Roman, hey, _no_ \--” Virgil started, and started to run backwards, but his words were completely contradicted by his shriek of laughter when Roman suddenly came running straight towards him and easily caught him. Virgil fell backwards onto the snow with Roman on top of him, their noses just inches apart.

“Boom! How’s that for fair?” Roman asked, that same easy smiling refusing to falter as he kept Virgil pinned to the ground.

“You suck.” Virgil said, and only half-heartedly tried to struggle to get away before he gave up and let the cold snow seep into his jacket. “You’re the worst, I hate you, I’ll never forgive you for this--”

“Mhm. Sure. Keep talking.” Roman said. “You’re just upset that I totally just won.”

“You didn’t win. I hit you like three times. You hit me once.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t a worthy opponent, my chemically imbalanced romance.” Roman said, and Virgil over exaggerated his eye roll for that one. “But you’re on the ground. Your entire back has been hit by snow.”

“I don’t think it counts if I hit the snow.” Virgil said. “I think the snow has to hit me for it to count.”

“Same difference.” Roman said. “But here, how about this. You’re currently under me, so I think that it might be -- no, actually, scratch that, it’s definitely my win.”

“Wow. Classy.”

“Are you denying it?” Roman asked, and raised an eyebrow.

He wasn’t, and admittedly, that was a bit of a problem. Of course, Virgil could argue that being pinned under his boyfriend meant that he was the real winner, but as time was going on, Virgil was caring less. Still, the competitive side of him was never going to be completely stomped out. Roman might have had him pinned, but he’d left his hands free. Virgil’s frozen fingers were still brushing against snow, and he had half a mind to grab some and shove it in his face, just to get the last laugh. 

~~**Should Virgil:** ~~

~~**Kiss Roman? or Grab Snowball?** ~~

_**VOTING CLOSED** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as if i don't know what all you shippy bastards are gonna pick


	7. Darkness: Elms Take Chances, Logan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil regrettably loves his boyfriend, and Logan hopelessly loves Patton.

**-YOU CHOSE: KISS-**

If there was one thing Virgil had learned from dating Roman, it was that he had wasted a lot of time trying to find different ways to shut him up over the years. Nothing could manage it for very long, not insults, not playing loud music over top of him, not even just straight up decking him (only happened once, but Roman still has yet to let him live it down). Still, he’d kept trying, but all his attempts felt pretty ridiculous to him now that he knew the one surefire way to make Roman stop talking.

Before Roman could open his mouth to argue that he won some more, Virgil reached up and pulled him down into a kiss.

Virgil could feel Roman melt against him, the same way he always did whenever Virgil kissed him, and Virgil had to fight to keep a smirk off his face. There was something about knowing that he could do that to Roman, that he was the _only_ one who could do that to Roman.

He let his cold fingers slide under the loose scarf hanging around Roman’s neck, just to give them a break from the frozen air, because god, Roman was warm. Roman was always so warm, Virgil wasn’t sure how he did it. He wasn’t sure what he expected, because he’d never been able to think of Roman as cold, but it still felt like a surprise every time. Something about being so close to him, with their lips pressed softly together and at least one of Roman’s hands gently finding Virgil’s waist - gentle, always so gentle, like Virgil’s pale skin was actually porcelain and Roman was afraid he’d break him - made a spark catch in Virgil’s chest and flicker to life there. It was easy to forget that he’d probably be miserable in his snow-covered clothes before long, how anyone could walk back to check on them and find them like this, how eventually, they were going to have to pull away to breathe and Virgil would once again curse his stupid lungs for not letting them stay like this forever.

Roman was the first to pull away, but stayed close enough that their noses were touching, and the soft, lovestruck smile that was on his face made the spark in Virgil’s chest grow to a steady flame. Before Roman, he hadn’t really known what “lovestruck” was supposed to look like. He’d assumed it was something that was only for poetry and bad romance novels, but there it was every time Roman pulled away, directed at him and him alone.

“Your hands are freezing.” Roman said, and the same teasing lilt was still in his voice, but he was softer, quieter, like he didn’t want to break the moment. Virgil didn’t blame him.

“That happens when your boyfriend leaves you alone on a bench in the snow for almost an hour.” Virgil retorted, and curled his fingers into Roman’s scarf. “Lucky for you, you’re cute and very good at keeping me warm, so I might forgive you for it.”

“Remus forgot to give me the key.” Roman shrugged. “I had to wait for him to get up there before I could meet you. I would’ve been here sooner.”

“And by ‘Remus forgot to give me the key’, you mean you forgot to ask for it.” Virgil said, and Roman let out a short scoff of a laugh.

“You’re not planning on letting me get away with anything, are you?” Roman asked, and Virgil couldn’t help the smile that came over his face.

“Never.” He said, and he wasn’t going to be the one to complain when Roman leaned in to kiss him again, his lips soft against Virgil’s slightly chapped ones. How Roman’s lips never seemed to be chapped, not even in the dead of winter, was beyond Virgil --

_Not getting away with anything._

Virgil’s eyes snapped back open, his anxiety suddenly twisting his stomach into a knot as the words settled in his head and he remembered what had happened earlier. Oh, god. Dee and Logan _knew._ They knew now, the secret was out, and sure, Virgil was pretty sure that he could trust Logan with something like this, Logan wasn’t really the type to gossip anyway, but Dee definitely was, and Dee couldn’t be trusted with homework answers, much less a secret relationship that happened just a couple weeks after a break up, a break up involving his best friend, fuck, Virgil was awful, Virgil was horrible and Remy had every right to hate him for this, even if he said he didn’t, he must, he must hate him because Virgil couldn’t imagine him being okay with this, ever, Dee was going to tell everyone and everyone would know about how badly he’d hurt his best friend just because he let his stupid heart get the best of him--

“Virgil. Hey, hey, look at me.”

Virgil hadn’t even realized that Roman had pulled away until he snapped out of his thoughts, and looked up to meet Roman’s eyes. He’d pulled back a little bit further then he had last time, just to give Virgil a little extra space to breathe, and Virgil was torn between being grateful for the space and wanting Roman to kiss him again and make him forget about all of this.

“You tensed up.” Roman explained, and his hand that had been resting on Virgil’s hip came up to carefully cup Virgil’s face. Roman ran his thumb over Virgil’s cheek gently, well-experienced in calming Virgil down by now. “What happened?”

"Nothing." Virgil said, but the knot in his chest only tightened slightly at the worried look on Roman’s face. Dammit. He was supposed to be distracting Roman from his worries. That was the whole reason he agreed to come up here again. Roman being on the mountain again meant bad memories were inevitably going to come back to the surface, and Virgil was supposed to be here for Roman. He wasn’t supposed to be flipping that on its head and needing Roman to be there for him. Roman was always there for him, anyway, he deserved to get that favor returned. “Just got lost in thought for a second, that’s all.”

Roman knew him better than that, and even if he didn’t, Virgil was a bad enough liar that he shouldn’t have expected to get away with it.

“You looked like you were gonna’ throw up for a second there, and you only look like that when your anxiety is acting up.” Roman said. “Did I do something?”

“No, you didn’t, it’s just…” Virgil let himself trail off for a bit and didn’t completely meet Roman’s eyes. Instead, he let his eyes focus on the picnic table a few feet away, where he could still see the outline his hand had left in the once perfectly smooth layer of snow that had settled over the table. “Logan and Dee know.”

Roman paused, and in his head, Virgil knew it was only for a moment, but he felt like he was watching the snowflakes fall in slow motion.

“Like...they know, know?” Roman asked.

“Yeah.” Virgil said, and silently wished the snow would fall faster and bury him. “Dee, uh. Dee saw the note you put in my locker when they came up from the cable car. I was stupid and didn’t hide it right, and I shouldn’t have even brought it in the first place, I knew what the plan was. But now they know and Dee’s gonna’ tell everyone and we won’t be a secret anymore because Dee never keeps his mouth shut about stuff like this--”

“Hey, breathe.” Roman reminded him. “Four seven eight, yeah? Just breathe for a second, it’s gonna’ be okay.”

Right. Breathe. Virgil nodded, and managed to go through two rounds of the four-seven-eight exercise before a thought occurred to him.

“You’re not mad?” He asked, and finally looked up to meet Roman’s eyes again. He’d expected Roman to at least be worried about that revelation, but he didn’t see anything other than concern behind his eyes, and once Virgil’s words had left his mouth, bewilderment.

“Mad? Why would I be mad that Dee and Logan know?”

“I don’t know.” Virgil shrugged. “Because we won’t be a secret anymore? ‘Cause everyone will know?”

“I wasn’t mad when Remy found out.” Roman pointed out.

“Yeah, but Remy was.” Virgil retorted. That had not been Virgil’s favorite week. Remy hadn’t even spoken to him for what felt like ages, and he had been absolutely certain he was going to lose his best friend. Sure, they were a bit better now, but Virgil still had a sense that there was a disconnect between them now, that he’d shattered a barrier of trust that was going to be very difficult to build back up again, if he could do it at all.

“Yes, but I wasn’t. And of course he was going to be upset, he’s Remy.” Roman said. “He gets pissed off when they run out of those little coffee straws at Starbucks.”

“I know that.” Virgil said. “I just thought...I don’t know. I thought you liked the whole secret thing.”

There were other things, too. Like Virgil’s constant fear that eventually, Roman was going to realize that sure, they were in the same friend group, but he could do way better than Virgil. The fact that he’d dated Remy was proof enough of that. Or like his worry that he was just a rebound that Roman found while he was too messed up from both his siblings’ disappearance and a recent break up to care about who he was kissing. Or that once they went public, the inherent thrill of sneaking around would die out and they’d both find out that was all their relationship was.

“Virgil, I did the secret thing because I knew it made you feel safe.” Roman said, and reached up to brush Virgil’s purple bangs back from his face and leaned forward just slightly, which caused their noses to touch again. “Tell you the truth, it’s been killing me.”

Virgil doubted that the bewilderment he felt in his chest wasn’t overwhelmingly obvious on his face.

“What do you mean?”

“What do _you_ mean?” Roman shot back, an easy smile coming back over his face. “I’ve got the chance to tell the entire fucking world that I’m the only one who gets to kiss Virgil Hughes, the prettiest emo I have ever had the privilege of getting to look at. I have no _idea_ how I’ve managed to keep it in this long.”

There it was again. That thing that Roman could do so easily, where he’d just say something like that, something that Virgil would usually never believe, but say it with such genuine truth behind his voice that the spark in Virgil’s chest came back again even as his brain struggled to comprehend the words. His fingers tightened slightly in Roman’s scarf, and for a moment, he hoped the same thing he’d hoped what felt like a million times before -- that he’d never have to let go again.

“...sap.” He said, which didn’t even begin to cover all the things he wanted to say to Roman, but even he could hear that his own voice was far too soft to be teasing. And based on the way Roman was looking at him, he was hearing everything that Virgil wanted to say in that one word.

“It’s true, though.” Roman said and pressed another quick kiss to Virgil’s lips, as if to prove he could. “See? Just did it again. Mind-blowing every time, I tell you.”

“You’re such a dork.”

“You love it.” Roman said, and Virgil didn’t even try to argue, because Roman was definitely right about that. “But seriously, if you’re that worried about it, I’ll ask Dee to keep it on the down low. He’ll listen to me.”

“Will he really?” Virgil asked, raising an eyebrow. “Dee doesn’t listen to anyone.”

“I mean...yeah, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try.” Roman shrugged. “Besides, you gotta’ remember that we’re friends, y’know? We’re gonna rag on each other, yeah, but I don’t think Dee would do something that would actually hurt you. He’ll keep it on the down low if it really makes you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not that it makes me uncomfortable.” Virgil said. He didn’t want Roman thinking that he was uncomfortable with the idea of people knowing about them, he wasn’t.  
Well, he was, but not because of _Roman_. More because he was going to have to stare that he’d been a bad friend right in the face, and if he was being honest, he didn’t deserve to be shielded from that.

“It’s just kind of weird, I guess. I don’t know. I’ll...I’ll be okay, I promise.”

“You’re sure?” Roman asked. “I know you don’t like it, Virge--”

“I’ll be fine.” Virgil cut in, and the words came out a bit more forcefully than he’d intended. “I’ll deal, Roman. They were gonna’ find out eventually, I guess, so I might as well just suck it up.”

Roman looked like he wanted to argue with that some more, and Virgil was certain he would if he got the chance. Before Roman could say a word, though, Virgil’s fingers moved to the back of his neck and pulled him back in for another kiss, and he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t a little bit rougher on purpose. Was kissing his boyfriend to distract him from being worried about him playing dirty? Maybe. But it was also incredibly effective, and the last thing Virgil wanted to do was talk even more about how people knowing about them made his insides twist up with nerves.

Roman pulled away again, slightly breathless, and looked down at Virgil with his eyes blown wide.

“I’ll take that as confirmation that you mean it.” He said. “God, you gotta’ warn me before you do that, or you really will kill me before the weekend’s over.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” Virgil rolled his eyes and smiled up at Roman. He temporarily pushed his nerves down, and suspected that wouldn’t be the first time he did that throughout the weekend. “Come on. We should get up to the lodge before the others start wondering where we are.”

“Aw, but I’m comfortable here.” Roman said, and an obviously fake pout came over his face. “Five more minutes?”

“Five more minutes and I’ll have hypothermia.”

“Now who’s being dramatic?” Roman asked. “You’re not even covered with that much snow.”

Virgil opened his mouth to argue, because he very much was covered in snow, thanks to Roman. He knew for a fact that when he stood up, his entire back was going to be white, thank you very much -- and that was when Roman suddenly scooped an entire handful of snow directly onto his face. Virgil sputtered and reached up to wipe the snow off his face. He could hear Roman laughing, and felt him jump up, definitely eager to get away from him. And he should be.

“But now you are!”

“You know what? I take it back.” Virgil said, pushing himself back up to his feet. “You’re not being dramatic. I will kill you by the time this weekend is over, Sanders.”

Now that the snow was out of his eyes, Virgil could see his traitorous, awful (wonderful, beautiful) boyfriend standing a few feet away, with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Can’t kill me if you can’t catch me, _Surly Temple_.” Roman said, stuck out his tongue, and took off running up the path towards the lodge.

Not ten seconds later, Virgil was chasing after him, and the sound of both of their breathless laughter echoed across the mountain. 

**\-- LOGAN, 10:00 P.M. --**

**\-- NINE HOURS UNTIL DAWN --**

Logan and Dee had made it up to the lodge by the time ten o’clock rolled around, and while Remy and Emile had made it, too, there was no sign of either of the twins, leaving the four of them out in the cold to wait. Dee was leaning against the stairway railing beside Logan, his gloved hands absentmindedly messing with the zipper on his jacket. Emile and Remy were both sitting on the stairs themselves, and Logan took note of their joined hands. Sure, he had been aware that Remy and Emile were a thing now, but if he was being honest with himself, it still surprised him every time. They were so different, Logan had doubted they would last as long as they had.

“What’s up, fuckers?”

Logan glanced up when he heard the familiar voice of his best friend, and he could swear he felt his chest lighten when he noticed a visibly exhausted Patton trailing behind him. Logan could only imagine what sort of race Remus had initiated on the way up.

“Hey, yourself.” Dee said, and crossed his arms over his chest as Remus and Patton approached. Logan didn’t miss the slight fondness in Dee’s voice, the same fondness that was apparently only reserved for Remus. “Finally got a key, or is the plan to just sit out here and freeze all night?”

“You doubt me?” Remus feigned shock before a grin came over his face, and he held out his hand to show a key dangling from his fingers. “Crisis averted!”

“Thank god.” Remy sighed, and leaned back against his elbows. “If I don’t get inside and in front of a fire in five minutes, I’m leaving.”

“Come on, Rem, you got yourself a boyfriend to keep you warm.” Remus teased. He jumped up the stairs, two at a time, seemingly unbothered by the idea that they could be covered in ice.

Logan turned his head to watch Patton, who’d flopped down into the snow the second he got a chance. His blond curls were pasted to his forehead, either with sweat from the trek, or the melting snow that had found a home in his hair, and little puffs of air were coming from his mouth as his chest rose and fell. His cheeks and the tip of his nose were pink from the cold, and his glasses had slipped a little bit down his nose. The smile he was wearing was somehow still a brilliant one, despite all the signs of exhaustion, and he was occasionally sticking his tongue out to catch a snowflake --

“Helloooo? Ground control to Major Lo?”

Logan snapped out of his thoughts to realize that Remus was speaking to him, and hoped that the heat that rushed into his cheeks could just be mistaken as a reaction to the cold.

“Sorry, what?” He asked, and the grin that came over Remus’ face made Logan’s stomach twist. Oh, boy. Logan knew that face all too well.

“I said, come on.” Remus said, gesturing up towards the door. “Let’s get this bad boy unlocked, yeah?”

The knot in Logan’s stomach loosened slightly, and he nodded, climbing up the stairs after Remus. He should have known better than to think Remus would blurt something out in front of everybody, regardless of how “hopelessly obvious” he said Logan was. Remus was crazy, yes, but he wouldn’t do that when Patton was right in earshot. He was fully aware of Logan’s massive, frankly ridiculous crush on Patton, and he used it to mess with Logan far too frequently for Logan’s liking.

Despite giving him a reprieve for the time being, there was a mischievous glint in Remus’ eyes that told Logan everything he needed to know. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, figuratively or literally, and getting caught openly staring at Patton to the point where he hadn’t heard Remus speaking to him was definitely going to be brought up later. Best to change the subject now, while Patton was still close enough to possibly be able to hear whatever they said.

“So.” Logan said, and cleared his throat as Remus made it to the door. “Are you doing okay?”

The easy smile on Remus’ face faltered, and he turned away, focusing his attention back on the door lock.

Definitely the wrong topic to bring up, then.

“I’m just a little bit worried about you, Remus--”

“Yeah, whatever, I get it.” Remus said, but he still didn’t look back at Logan. “I just really don’t wanna’ think about it, okay? Just wanna’ be up here and have a good time, same way we always did -- fuck, this stupid thing!”

Logan glanced over Remus shoulder to spot the ice covering the lock. Oh.

“It’s iced?”

“‘Course it is.” Remus said, and reached out to try and jiggle the door handle, as if that was going to do anything to get the door open. “Not like anything can go right when we need it to, huh?”

“Don’t be like that.” Logan said. “There has to be another way in somewhere. A lodge like this isn’t going to only have a single door and nothing else.”

“Thanks for the astute observation, Sherlock.” Remus said. “There are a million ways in, they’re just all locked.”

“Well...maybe we could find a way. There’s likely a window we could manage to open, somewhere--”

“Wait a second.” Remus cut Logan off, and Logan was relieved to see a hint of a smile return to Remus’ face as he looked back at him. “Are you saying we should break in?”

Of course Remus would get excited over something illegal. Logan wasn’t quite sure what else he’d been expecting.

“I don’t think it legally counts as breaking and entering if you own the lodge, Remus.”

“Technically not mine.” Remus pointed out, and his grin had fully returned as he headed back towards the stairs. “And hey, I can always report you. Let’s go, Hall!”

Logan sighed and followed him, though he was much less reckless on the icy stairs than Remus was.

“Where you guys going?” Patton’s voiced piped up as Logan reached the bottom of the stairs. He had sat up, leaning back on his arms for support, and he didn’t seem to care in the slightest that his entire back was likely covered in snow. His head was tilted just slightly to the side in curiosity, and -- no, no, Logan was not going to give Remus more material.

“The door lock is iced.” Logan explained, and pointed back towards the door. “We’re going to go see if we can find another way in to get it open from the inside.”

“Oh, gotcha.” Patton smiled. “Need any help?”

Help would have been great, actually. The lodge was big, after all, with plenty of doors and windows to check, and the faster they could find one to open, the better. However, before Logan could respond, Remus threw an arm around his shoulder enthusiastically, and Logan could hear the grin in his voice.

“No need, Pattycakes. We got this one. Besides, Logan and I need some bro time, yeah?” Remus said, and reached up to mess with Logan’s hair.

Logan shoved him away, but not hard enough to actually knock him over. “Remind me why I’m friends with you.”

“‘Cause we made a pact in kindergarten. Let’s go, astro boy.” Remus said, unbothered by Logan’s shove, and started towards the small, unassuming path that led around the lodge.

“Okay, well, good luck.” Patton said, and gave Logan an easy smile that made Logan’s heart feel like it was melting. He’d never understood that expression before he’d been on the receiving end of one of Patton’s smiles, but now he completely understood.

“Try to keep warm. We’ll make this quick.” Logan promised, and followed after Remus.

The path to the back of the lodge was a winding, twisting one, which Logan had always found a little strange, given that it wasn’t leading very far off. It was lit with a couple of streetlamps along the way, but even with that, it felt darker, and the trees didn’t help. The trees also managed to put a fair bit of cover in between the path and the front of the house, and Logan was pretty sure Remus would use all of those different factors to his advantage.

“So. Patton’s looking good tonight, huh?”

There it was.

Logan didn’t hesitate before glaring in Remus’ direction, but that only seemed to spur him on.

“Come on, Lo. I saw you get lost in your own head there. What were you thinking about?” He grinned. “Thinkin’ about ripping off that puffy jacket of his and making some snow angels?”

“Is it possible for you to shut up, or would it throw off the stability of your brain?” Logan asked, and Remus just laughed in response. “And no, I was not thinking along those lines. Unlike you, I have the ability to think of things other than sex.”

“Aw, you _wound_ me, Lo.” Remus said. “Look, I’m just sayin’. Everyone knows you got it bad, and it’s driving me fuckin’ crazy that you don’t do anything about it. When are you gonna’ suck it up and take him straight to the bone zone?”

“Okay, first of all, I am begging you to stop calling it that--”

“And Patton could be begging _you_ for things if you weren’t a little bitch about it.” Remus shot back. “He practically spends his entire life with you as it is.”

“Yes, because we are _friends_ \--”

“Oh my god, stop.” Remus said. “Stop, and look around you for five goddamn seconds. We’re on a mountain, Lo. A mountain that is miles away from any parents of any kind. We are alone, on a mountain, in a fancy lodge that has at least eight separate bedrooms for you to choose from, and that’s just the bedrooms. Think about it with that giant brain of yours. You and Patton, alone at last. You’ve been a perfect gentlemen for years on end, he has no reason not to like you, and now is your chance to go in for the kill.”

The fact that Remus equated sex to a kill said enough about him on its own, and Logan knew fully well that Remus was never one to take advice from, unless you needed a way to get someone to leave you alone. However, despite all that, he did have a point. Maybe it was time to try and see if Patton felt any way about him the same way he felt about him. 

~~**Should Logan:** ~~

~~**Agree? or Disagree?** **  
**_“Maybe you’re right.” “I can’t do that.”_ ~~

_VOTING CLOSED_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so quick note: the last choice actually ended as a 50/50 split between snowball and kiss, and I decided that whenever that happens, I'll be asking a friend of mine who's not involved with the writing of the story to make the swing vote, just to keep my own bias out of the story! 
> 
> (also am i seriously referencing a sanders sides joke in the title of this chapter yes yes i am and it is an underappreciated joke)


	8. Darkness: Casual Arson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Casual arson, surprise wild animals, and memories of friends probably long dead. 
> 
> Yep. The weekend's off to a great start for Logan.

**-YOU CHOSE: DISAGREE-**

Giving Remus any sort of “go-ahead” was going to spell trouble for all of them, especially he and Patton. Logan didn’t need that, and was fairly certain Patton didn’t, either.

“I can’t do that.” He said, and kept talking over Remus’ overexaggerated groan. Best get his point out before Remus could talk him into doing something stupid. He was all too good at that. “I can’t, Remus, you know that. It’s the most surefire way of creeping him out and losing him as a friend entirely, and I’d rather have him in my life as just a friend than not at all.”

“It’s also the most surefire way to end up dying a lonely, said virgin who’s done nothing but pine from afar your whole life.” Remus retorted. “I’m trying to help you, Specs, you make it impossible.”

“You’re trying to push me into a horrific miscalculation.”

“I’m trying to get you to live a little!” Remus sighed, and casually kicked some snow, dusting Logan’s legs with powder. “Seriously. You’re the biggest stick in the mud I know.”

“You didn’t say that when I agreed to help you find a way to knock out the power in the whole school for when the senior prank comes up next semester.” Logan said, and kept walking down the path. “Or when I told you how to properly dissect that dead possum you found on the road last month. Or when I suggested breaking into this very lodge.”

“Okay, so you’re secretly an agent of chaos, big whoop.” Remus said, and Logan could practically feel his over-exaggerated eye roll without having to see it. “Is it really that bad that I wanna’ help you get laid once? Before you’re an old geezer in a home somewhere?”

“I will not be -- you know what? I’m not even going to talk about this with someone who has a physical inability to stop thinking about sex for more than ten minutes at a time.” Logan said, but instead of sounding offended, Remus snickered.

“You know it.”

It was Logan’s turn to roll his eyes as they finally came across the back of the lodge, and a couple of motion-sensor lights switched on as they got close, brilliantly illuminating the snow beneath their feet. There wasn’t really much towards the back of the lodge to really take note of, in all honesty. As far as Logan could remember from the couple of winters and summers Remus had invited him up for, there was just a couple of storage containers that had random bits of outdoor equipment, like the hose that Remus inevitably dragged out every single summer just to try and soak anyone who least expected it. Still, there were three windows along the wall that looked like they could easily be opened if they could manage to reach them. The only problem was they were too high up to reach, much less hoist themselves through.

“Should we be worried about the motion sensors?” Logan asked, and glanced over at Remus, who was looking intently at the windows, too. Logan could practically see gears turning behind his eyes.

“What?” Remus asked, snapping out of it for a brief second. “Dude. Chill. I was kidding about the breaking in thing. Security cameras up here can’t send any footage anywhere, there’s no signal. And even if they could, Mom and Dad know both of us.”

“I just want to be careful.”

“Yeah, you always do.” Remus said, and walked closer to the back wall, staring up at the windows. “So. Got any brilliant plans for getting up to these? Could probably force ‘em open.”

“I didn’t say I had a plan.” Logan said, though looking at Remus’s height closer to the wall was giving him an idea. The storage containers were metal, and looked plenty sturdy enough to support their weight. Sure, they were out of the way, and they were probably heavy, but if the two of them were to work together, they could probably move one close enough to the windows to use as a sort of step stool --

“You kidding? You have that same look on your face that you always do when something’s clicking in your head.” Remus said. “Besides, you always have a plan.”

He did have a point there.

“Here, help me move this.” Logan said, heading over to the storage container that was the closest to the window. There was nothing on the side that made it an easy thing to lift, but pushing it seemed like it would work just fine. The way Remus’ face lit up was an immediate sign that he put the pieces together, too.

“Oh, you absolute genius.” Remus grinned, and Logan couldn’t help but smile at that.

Remus quickly made his way next to Logan, and pressed his back to the side of the container, digging his feet further into the snow. Logan wouldn’t have called that the most efficient way to push the container, but by this point in his life, he’d figured out that if it didn’t really matter, the easiest thing was just to let Remus do things the way Remus wanted to do them, and then be on standby later when he ultimately regretted it. Logan set his hands on the container instead, and didn’t even need to count down before they both started pushing the container all the way over to the window. It was a bit lighter than Logan had initially expected, and it didn’t take half the effort he’d been expecting, either, but it wasn’t like he was going to complain about that.

“Nice one -- hey!” Remus complained as he stood back up, only to turn around to see Logan already climbing up to reach the window. “What if I wanted to do it?”

“You should’ve been faster, then.” Logan pointed out. When he was stood on the container, the window stopped right below his chest, a much easier height to reach. He slid his fingers under the bottom of the window, and had intended only to test how much it would take to force it open, but instead, the window popped open with no resistance whatsoever. Huh.

“You know, you really should double check to make sure these things are locked.” Logan said, and glanced down at Remus, who was only slightly sulking on the ground behind him. “Someone could break in really easily.”

“You mean like we’re doing right now?” Remus asked, raising an eyebrow. “Come on, man, no one comes up here. It’s no big deal.”

“It’s a very big deal.”

“And we’d all be stuck freezing out here if I didn’t leave it unlocked, so, really, what’s worse, Lo?” Remus asked. “That or a hypothetical person hypothetically breaking in?”

“Don’t use that word like you know what it means.” Logan said, and leaned his head into the cabin to see if there was anything that would be a good place to land when he climbed inside.

“Just because it has more than eight letters in it doesn’t know I don’t know what it means!” Remus protested. “Just go in, man, I’m getting bored.”

“Fine.” Logan said. There was a table pushed up against the wall that the window was against. The best way to do this would likely be to aim for the table, just so the initial drop inside would be less steep and less dangerous--

Or at least, that was the plan. Instead, as Logan hoisted himself through the window, he overdid it, quickly losing balance and tumbling to the ground, slamming back-first into the concrete floor of the basement.

_Ow._

“Oh, shit, Lo, you alright?”

Logan opened his eyes to see Remus’s head peeking in through the window, a rare look of concern over his face.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Logan said, and pushed himself back up off the ground. The impact had definitely hurt, but the initial pain was already almost completely gone, and he could guess that the most he’d have from the fall would be a slight bruise. “Suppose I should have been more careful--”

Logan cut himself off as the single light bulb that was hanging from the ceiling suddenly popped, shattering into a thousand pieces and making both he and Remus jump out of their skin.

“Holy--”

“Woah.” Remus said, staring over at where the light bulb had previously been. “Are light bulbs supposed to be able to blow when they’re off?”

“Apparently. I didn’t think that was possible, though...did I do that?” Logan asked, and glanced back at Remus, who shrugged.

“Unless you have secret mind powers you’ve never told me about.” Remus said. “Which, by the way, if you do, totally pissed you never told me.”

“I don’t have mind powers, Remus.” Logan sighed, and turned back around, squinting through the darkness of the garage. “I can barely see in here, how am I supposed to get through without a light?”

“What about this?” Remus asked, and Logan looked back to see him holding out a silver lighter towards him casually, as if it was totally natural for him to just have one on him. Remus must have sensed his confusion, because he tilted his head to the side. “What?”

“You don’t smoke. Why do you have a lighter on you?” Logan asked, even as he reached up to take it. A small light source was better than none.

“Well, y’know. Never know when you’re gonna’ need some casual...arson…” Remus said, and trailed off towards the end, getting that same look in his eyes again that Logan knew meant trouble. “Holy shit. Casual arson. Logan, I just got the best idea.”

“You saying you have the ‘best idea’ after talking about casual arson sounds like an idea that I shouldn’t entertain.”

“No, dude, seriously, shut up and listen.” Remus said. “Okay, so, I’m pretty sure that there’s some deodorant in one of the bathrooms--”

“I’m not letting you try and eat deodorant again.” Logan cut him off. He’d learned from that mistake once before. And had also learned not to think Remus was ever kidding about eating something that he really shouldn’t.

“Okay, first off, I wasn’t the one who freaked out and called Poison Control, that’s on you.” Remus said. “And second, I’m not talking about that. I think it’s Roman’s, it’s a spray-on.”

Oh. _Oh._

“You want me to make a flamethrower?”

“And he sticks the landing!” Remus grinned. “It’ll melt that frozen lock in no time. Bam, problem solved!”

“Remus. This is a lodge. Built almost entirely out of wood.” Logan said, and raised an eyebrow at Remus. “I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain how this could end in catastrophe. The whole place could go up in seconds.”

“Oh, wah, wah, like a tiny little deodorant-lighter-powered flame thrower is gonna’ cause mass destruction.” Remus sighed. “The most it’ll do is maybe catch a wall for a split second and we could easily put it out. You got any better ideas?”

Unfortunately for Logan, in this situation, he didn’t.”

“That’s what I thought.” Remus said, and a smug grin came over his face. “Hey, so, I need to check on something real quick, and I can head back and let the others know you’re in and getting the lock open, you down for hunting around in the dark by yourself for a bit?”

“Not really, but I suppose I’m not going to be able to convince you to help.”

“If more people got that about me, life would be so much easier for them.” Remus grinned, and playfully saluted him. “I’ll see you on the other side, Specs!”

With that, Remus disappeared from the window, leaving Logan to once again wonder why he was friends with Remus in the first place.

Still, he shook his head, clearing his mind about Remus for a second. Remus was right, the others were going to freeze out there the longer they stayed, and with Logan being the only one inside, he was the only one left to unfreeze the lock. He started walking towards the stairs leading up to the rest of the lodge, carefully avoiding the random bits and things scattered throughout the basement from summers and winters past -- an old skateboard, a couple of deflated inner tube sleds, cardboard boxes that could really be hiding just about anything. He reached the stairs with much more grace than he had entered the building, and climbed up, heading into the lodge itself.

It was exactly the same as he remembered it, and he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be surprised by that or not. Sure, no one had come up since the last time they’d all been together, so of course it wouldn’t be changed, but still. It felt like something should be different. Two kids had gone missing up here, and yet, the lodge felt as if nothing bad had happened at all. The dark wood and stone walls of the place felt as homey as they ever had to Logan, even when they were only illuminated by the soft orange flame of the lighter, and he felt like he could breathe a bit easier. That in itself felt wrong. He shouldn’t be relaxing in the last place Thomas and Joan had ever been seen alive.

Logan shook his head again, taking a breath. He wasn’t there to be thinking about that, he was here to help Remus get through it, and he would be no help if he himself was caught up in the past. It wasn’t the past, it was the present, and there was no use dwelling on what had been. Even if he felt a chill run down his spine when he walked past the all-too-familiar portrait of the Sanders themselves, with both Thomas and Joan grinning like absolutely nothing was wrong.

Logan collected his thoughts and continued on towards the downstairs bathroom. Luckily for him, he’d been coming here with Remus since he was at least twelve, if he was remembering correctly, and knew the layout as well as the back of his hand, even in the dark. And the sooner he could get out of the dark and get everyone inside, the better.   
Logan quickly found his way to the bathroom, and started checking the cabinets that lined the walls for the deodorant Remus had mentioned. No, no, no, no --there. Logan crouched down in front of the cabinet underneath the sink, where he’d opened up one door just enough to reveal the can of spray-on deodorant, sitting harmlessly inside. Well, as harmless as a thing could be when it was about to be used as a tool to create a flamethrower. Logan reached out towards the deodorant, and his fingers were just about to close around it--

Something suddenly burst out from the cabinet, and Logan instinctively jumped back with a yelp, just barely managing to keep from dropping the lighter on the ground. The thing shot out of the room as fast as lightning, to the point where all Logan had really been able to decipher about it was that it was definitely some kind of animal, no taller than his knee, and that it snarled as it ran away from him. Probably some kind of baby wolverine, or something.

“Jesus Christ, what the _fuck_.” He muttered, staring off in the direction that the thing had run, with dread building in his stomach. Great. He’d told Remus plenty of times to be diligent about keeping the place locked, especially when the mountain had plenty of wild animals to speak of, and now something had got in that they were going to have to hunt down and get rid of. Great way to kick off what was supposed to be a relaxing weekend -- although, then again, Remus would probably get a kick out of it.

He glanced back into the cabinet to be absolutely certain it was empty, and this time, managed to actually get a hold of the deodorant. Might as well go let everyone in, it would certainly making the job of finding whatever that was easier.

Logan made his way back to the door, keeping an eye out for the wolverine the whole way there. Instead, he only found Patton and Dee’s faces in the door’s small window, and Patton smiled as he spotted him.

“Hey, Logan made it!” Patton said, and his voice was slightly muffled through the door.

“Great.” Dee said. “Would be better if he would let us in.”

“I’m on it, Dee, give me a second.” Logan said.

“Been waiting an hour.” Dee reminded him, and Logan rolled his eyes, and crouched just slightly to get a better view of the lock.

He had to be careful with this. A slightly wrong angle could mean accidentally setting the door on fire, and that was really the last thing they needed. Luckily, Logan liked to think he had a pretty steady hand, and with his careful aim at the door lock, Remus turned out to be right. The mini-flamethrower was easier to control than Logan remembered, and before he knew it, the lock seemed like it had been melted, with no collateral damage. _Phew._

He pulled the sleeve of his coat over his hand to protect it from the heat before he touched the now-burning-hot door handle, and finally pulled the door open to cheerful applause from Patton.

“Nice one!” Patton grinned, and Logan couldn’t help but smile back--

Only to jump out of his skin for the second time as the animal he’d seen before shot out of nowhere, careening through the door and back out into the woods.

Well. At least that meant they wouldn’t have to hunt the thing down.

“Uh, hello? What the hell was that thing?” Remy’s voice piped up from further down the stairs. Emile was right beside him, and looked like that exact same question was also on his mind.

“Not sure, it was hiding in the bathroom cabinets.” Logan explained. “Really freaked me out, actually--”

“Aw, come on, Lo, it’s just a little baby wolverine.” Dee smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Most it could do is nip at your heels.”

“Yeah, well, when you aren’t expecting it to jump out at you--”

“Don’t worry, buddy.” Remus’ voice spoke up, and Logan spotted Remus climbing up the stairs towards them, an eager grin on his face. “You’re gonna’ be a big boy soon!”

Logan glared at him, and stepped aside, letting the others come through the door and finally, finally get inside. Remus was first in, hardly bothering to kick the snow off of his boots as he made a beeline for the living room. Patton, Dee, Emile and Remy were close behind, however, and Logan did his best to pretend he was hardly thinking about the way Patton lingered behind just slightly to keep pace with him.

“Home, sweet home!” Remus shouted, and stretched his arms over his head, a haphazard grin on his face as he spun around once.

“Sweet isn’t exactly the word I’d use.” Logan heard Dee mutter, but if Remus heard him, it didn’t make the grin on his face falter.

“Gosh, it feels so good to be inside.” Patton piped up. “Even if it is still kind of freezing in here.”

“Hey, well, y’know what’s great about inside?” Remus asked. “I can build a fire in here.”

“Please be careful with it.” Logan said.

“Are you my best friend or my mom?” Remus fake-pouted, and was quickly back to a smile as he headed over towards the fire place.

“This place barely looks any different.” Remy said, and propped his suitcase up against the wall as he looked around the room.

“Yeah, nobody’s been up here.” Remus called, not looking up from whatever he was doing by the fireplace.

“Even with all the police coming in and out -- ow!” Emile cut himself off, and Logan glanced over just in time to see Remy elbow Emile in the chest, along with a very clear _don’t bring it up_ look plastered across his face.

“Well, I mean, kinda’ their job not to move shit around, right?” Remus continued, though, seemingly unbothered by Emile’s words. “Integrity of a crime scene and whatnot, blah, blah, blah.”

“We’re talking about crime scenes?” Roman’s voice came out of nowhere, and Logan turned to see Roman walking into the living room, followed by Virgil. And that both of them were completely covered in snow. 

**\-- ROMAN, 10:28 P.M. --**

“What happened to you two?” Logan asked, completely ignoring Roman’s question, and Roman probably should have guessed he would. They were on a snowy mountain and all, but Virgil did still have a lot of snow stuck in his hair, and he wasn’t exactly completely void of snow, either.

“Oh, y’know. Fell down. It’s a snowy mountain, hard to see where you’re going.” Roman shrugged, and headed over to where Remus was crouched in front of the fireplace. He pointedly didn’t pay attention to the way the others’ turned to look at both he and Virgil at Logan’s question. He set his backpack down by the fireplace, glancing into it as Remus messed with it. “You good?”

“Yeah. Stupid thing’s just kinda’ finicky, you know.” Remus shrugged. “I got it, don’t freak.”

“Cool.” Roman said, and turned back around only to have his eyes land on Virgil (that always seemed to happen nowadays, he was pretty sure that Chris Hemsworth could be in the room and he would still only have eyes for Virgil), who was awkwardly leaning against the door frame and rubbing his arm. It didn’t take a genius to notice how tense he was.

“Hey, uh, Dee?” Roman asked, taking his eyes off of Virgil to instead turn his attention to Dee, who was wearing a slight smirk on his face that disappeared the second he heard his name.

“Yeah?”

“Can I talk to you for a second? Over there?”

Dee raised an eyebrow, and glanced back and forth between Virgil and Roman for a second before he shrugged, and headed over towards the dining room that led off of the kitchen. “Yeah, sure, I guess.”

“Cool.” Roman said, and followed him. The dining room didn’t feel much more secluded than the living room did, and Roman was sure at least one of the others would try to listen in, but he found himself once again thanking god for Patton as he heard Patton start up a conversation with Virgil. Maybe he didn’t do it purposefully to distract from Roman and Dee, but still.

“Here, let me help you get some of this snow off you, are you sure you didn’t hurt yourself in that fall?”

“Alright. What do you need to talk about?” Dee asked, taking back Roman’s focus, his arms crossed over his chest.

“I know that you know about me and Virgil.” Roman said. Better just cut to the chase, the longer they stayed away from the others, the more curious they’d get. “Virgil told me about what happened earlier.”

“So? You’re together, big whoop. Do you want a congratulations, or something--”

“Come on, man. You obviously know how Virgil feels about this.” Roman said, and mirrored Dee’s movements, crossing his arms. “He’s not comfortable with letting everyone know--”

“And what? You think I’m gonna’ go around telling everyone?” Dee asked. “Remy’s the gossip girl around here, you don’t need to worry about me.”

“Remy might be the one not to trust with secrets, but you like messing with Virgil.”

“So did you up until a few months ago, apparently.” Dee shot back. “And then your idea of what messing around with Virgil meant apparently changed drastically, if you’re writing pretty cursive love notes to him.”

Roman’s face heated up at that, and scowled.

“Don’t.”

“What? I’m just saying.” Dee said. “You’re gonna’ get found out on this trip anyway, if you get caught sneaking off together. You know that, right? I know a thing or two about keeping secrets, and walking in here together covered in snow is gonna’ give people the right idea.”

“I’m just asking you to not talk about it.” Roman said. “Please. I don’t want Virgil to spend the weekend worrying about what you’re gonna’ say when we get back.”

Dee was quiet for a moment, but eventually sighed and slid his hands in his pockets.

“Fine.” He said. “I won’t say anything. I wasn’t planning to, anyway, for your information. Don’t know why you people always think I’m the one who’s gonna’ blab about secrets. I’m an excellent secret keeper.”

“Maybe because you’re kind of an asshole sometimes?” Roman suggested, and Dee rolled his eyes.

“You say that like you’re not.”

“Hey--” Roman started, but Dee was already walking back towards the living room, leaving Roman to follow him.

Virgil had moved from the doorway to the couch, but was still just as tense as ever, even with Patton sitting beside him and talking animatedly about how the start of his winter break had gone. He’d managed to brush most of the snow off of his back, and Roman could guess that Patton had helped. Everyone else had spread out a little bit more. Roman could hear what sounded like someone messing around in the kitchen and putting stuff away -- probably Logan, based on his absence from the room. Emile was sitting on one of the chairs, listening to Patton talk, and Remy was leaning against the wall, looking disinterested in everything, but when Roman followed his eyes, he could tell that Remy was looking more at Virgil than he was at Patton.

Sure, it might have meant nothing. It might mean that Remy was just worried about his friend, who was still as tense as pulled wire, likely because of Remy looking at him. It didn’t have to mean that Remy was still pissed at Virgil, because yeah, Remy could hold grudges with the best of them, but he really had seemed like he wasn’t mad at Virgil after that two week long social media silent treatment.

Either way, Roman could tell that Remy keeping his eyes on Virgil wasn’t helping, and if there was one thing Roman wanted, it was to make sure that Virgil still felt safe up here.   
Roman didn’t really like the idea of separating, and Virgil would have to get used to being around Remy when they were together at some point, but...sue him. Virgil was right, he had a tendency to be a total sap, and if whisking his boyfriend away to the guest cabin that was stationed further away from the lodge where they could be alone for a while without danger meant letting Virgil feel comfortable, then there wasn’t any question of what Roman wanted.

Still, they weren’t going to get down there completely unnoticed, and even if they could, Roman wouldn’t want that. Straight up disappearing on everyone was not the way to heal from last year, it would only make things worse. The others would panic if they didn’t know where they were, Remus especially. Even with that in mind, though, if they were going to do this, it would only freak Virgil out further if everyone knew they were going off to a cabin to be alone together. Maybe he could get away with just telling Remus?

~~**Should Roman:** ~~

~~**Be Subtle? or Be Blatant?** ~~

_VOTING CLOSED_

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so fun fact: i made 8 character menus for everyone in the story so that you guys can see how they look in the story! there's a speedpaint up on my youtube channel now, Possibly Drawing, and i hope you guys go check it out and enjoy! 
> 
> here's the link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6Nn7XtBcMA


	9. Darkness: Trust Your Twin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman places a secret in...well, maybe not-so-capable hands.

**\- YOU CHOSE: BE SUBTLE -**

Well, really, as long as he told Remus, he wouldn’t scare the one person he was truly afraid of scaring.

“Seriously, emo, you’re just gonna’ dump your bag there?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest and throwing out his best unimpressed look.

Virgil jumped at the mention of his name -- geez, he really was freaking out -- and turned to stare at Roman with nothing but confusion written over his face.

“What? I just put it by my feet, what’s the--”

“Yeah, I know. Jesus, you’d think you’ve never been here before.” Roman sighed, and reached down to pick up Virgil’s bag and unceremoniously throw it in his lap. “Come on, Jack Smellington, you always pick the room that’s furthest away from the stairs for some weird reason. At least go claim it before Dee gets it before you and you get all pissy.”

Thankfully, Virgil got the message, and he scowled at Roman and stood up with a huff. He slung his bag over his shoulder, and shoved Roman partially out of the way as he headed towards the stairs that led to the second floor.

“Don’t tell me what to do, Princey.”

“And yet you’re doing what I asked!” Roman called after him in a sing-song voice, only to have Virgil flip him off as he climbed the stairs. Wow. Roman had to hand it to him, when the time came, Virgil was well practiced in pretending that he still hated Roman’s guts.

Well, at least, Roman hoped he was just pretending. That would be an ugly way for their relationship to end.

“Heathen.” Roman muttered under his breath, and looked to see Remus attempting to start a fire with the lighter that he’d apparently taken back from Logan in the time it took Roman to talk to Dee. “Dude, no way. Come on, let’s go get the matches Mom and Dad got specifically for this, and not just throw fire at it and hope it works.”

“What? I’ve done this before.” Remus pouted. “Live a little, Ro.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. Come on, man, seriously.” Roman said, and crossed his arms over his chest. Remus let out an over dramatic sigh, but thankfully, pocketed the lighter and waved to the others still in the living room.

“Goodbye, everyone. I’m off to Roman’s sad, boring world where rules must be followed and general safety isn’t just some inconvenient obstacle--”

“Yeah, yeah, just get out of here.” Dee said, and Roman wasn’t blind to the almost fond smile over his face when he looked at his brother. Hm.

“Sooner you get back, the sooner it can be warm in here!” Patton piped up, and stood up as Roman pulled Remus out of the room, leaving only the echo of his voice behind as they left. “I’m gonna’ help Logan get the food unpacked, anyone wanna’ help?”

“Dude, what gives?” Remus asked, and raised an eyebrow at him as soon as they’d made it into the hallway that led towards the supply closet. “You know I can light the fireplace with my lighter just fine, Mom bought those special matches years ago, we don’t need ‘em--”

“I’m going to tell you something and you have to promise to keep it a secret.” Roman said, the words tumbling so quickly out of his mouth he was fairly sure that no one except Remus would be able to understand him, and sure enough, Remus’ face split into a grin in half a second.

“Is this about you and Virgil being together? Because I know about that already.”

“Yes, I -- wait, what?” Roman completely lost his train of thought, that train coming to a screeching halt as soon as his brain processed what Remus had said.

“I know, Ro.” Remus said. “Seriously. You are not as subtle as you think you are. And you are especially bad at being quiet. Even if you weren’t, though, did you really think I didn’t notice how many times Virgil’s been over the past few months?”

“I told you we were--”

“Studying. Mhm.” Remus said, and gave Roman a look. “Y’know, for someone who prides himself so much on his creativity, you’d think you could come up with a better excuse than that.”

“Oh my god, shut up.” Roman said, and shoved his shoulder, just enough to push him backwards slightly. Well. He knew, then. It wasn’t like he could deny it. “How long have you known?”

“Since you came back to English from a suspiciously long bathroom break with a look on your face like you just watched the birth of the universe itself.” Remus grinned, and Roman could feel the heat rush to his cheeks.

“You knew for months, and didn’t say anything?”

“Hey! I may not be great at secret keeping, especially when it’s this juicy, but you’re my brother, it’s different.”

Well. Maybe Roman needed to start giving Remus more credit for being a good brother.

“Uh...thanks for not saying anything, I guess?” Roman said. 

“Don’t thank me yet. Patton knows, too.” Remus said casually, as if that didn’t open up a pit of dread in Roman’s stomach. Yes, Patton was a good friend, and Roman was absolutely certain that he’d keep things a secret if Virgil asked and that he would be fine with it. But Patton also had a tendency to get over excited about things, and Roman guessed that Patton would be gushing to Virgil about how cute they were in about an hour. Yeah, they needed to get out of here.

“How did he...y’know what? Doesn’t matter.” Roman sighed. “Everyone’s probably gonna’ find out eventually, anyways. But that’s not exactly what I needed to tell you.”

Curiosity sparked behind Remus’ eyes, and he tilted his head to the side. “Oh?”

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m serious. You can’t tell anybody.” Roman said. “Only if people get really freaked out, okay? And don’t let them follow.”

“See, you’re giving me all kinds of instructions here, Ro, but no actual explanation. I’m getting curious.” Remus said, and Roman simply gave him a look. After a few seconds, Remus broke, sighing. “Okay, fine, fine. I promise I won’t tell. Twin’s honor, and all that. What’s going on?”

“I’m gonna’ take Virgil to the guest cabin for a while -- don’t, no, stop.” Roman cut himself off as the confused look on Remus’ face turned to one of mischievous delight.

“Wow. You really jumping him this soon? I’d have thought you would at least let him get settled--”

“Would you shut up? It’s not like that.” Roman insisted, but that only seemed to make Remus’ teasing grin grow wider.

“Not like that? He’s your boyfriend, dude, and it’s not like I don’t have night after night of experience holding my pillow over my ears to try to get some sleep.” He said, and playfully socked him in the arm. “Hey, I’m not gonna’ judge you for it! I’d be a massive hypocrite if I did, you know that.”

“I mean it, Remus.” Roman said. “This whole thing...Virgil’s still a little freaked out. He still feels like he betrayed Remy, or something, and I want him to be able to actually have a vacation, not just sit around feeling like Remy’s constantly judging him.”

“Aww, really living up to your name there, Mr. Romantic.”

“Shut _up_.”

“Hey, you’re the one who keeps telling me things.” Remus shrugged. “I already agreed not to tell anyone else, and that’s gonna’ kill me. You gotta’ let me tease you about it at least.”

Well. There were certainly worse things that Remus could ask for in return for a favor, and Roman would know.

“You promise you’re not gonna’ tell?” Roman asked, and immediately felt like he was six again, and they were making one of those pinkie-promise-pacts that they used to make all the time. “I mean, you can tell if they get freaked out about where we are, I get why they’d need to know then, but I don’t want Virgil to get worried about what everyone thinks about him, and--”

“Woah, Virgil’s rubbing off on you. Figuratively and literally.” Remus grinned, and Roman returned it with a scowl. “You’re rambling, dude, quit worrying. I won’t tell unless Patton freaks. Lips are sealed. Cool?”

Most people wouldn’t take that as enough from Remus, given his spotty history in the “being trustworthy” department. Frankly, Roman wouldn’t blame them, either. But he liked to think that he knew his brother fairly well, and could tell when he was being genuine. It was something about the smile in his face, the way it was just slightly calmer than it usually was, losing that manic edge he brought to most things he did.

“Yeah, we’re cool. Thanks.” Roman said, and reached into the supply closet, finding the matches in seconds. He tossed them to Remus, who nearly dropped them. “Here. Better use the actual matches, just in case?”

“Oh my god, you party pooper.” Remus pouted, but didn’t try to put the matches back. 

“Oh yeah, I’m such a party pooper for not wanting the lodge to burn down.”

“I’m careful!” Remus insisted.

“Mhm. Sure you are. Tell that to the picnic table outside that has a hole in it.”

“That was, like, four years ago.” Remus rolled his eyes, and sent a smirk in Roman’s direction. “Don’t you have a boyfriend to go bang, or something?”

“Ha-ha.” Roman deadpanned, but he couldn’t keep the smile off his face when Remus casually flipped him off as he headed back out to the living room. Jackass. He followed Remus out, and headed over to pick up his own bag off of the floor.

“You got the matches?” Emile asked, and Roman could hear the grin in his brother’s voice as he responded.

“Yep! Would’ve had a fire going by now if Roman wasn’t such a coward, but oh well. Gimme’ ten seconds.”

“Where are you going?”

Roman froze with his foot on the first stair leading to the second floor, and inwardly cursed. Sure, he wasn’t expecting to get upstairs totally unnoticed, but it would’ve been nice if Remy had just let him go without questioning it.

Or, actually, maybe that would’ve been worse. Remy didn’t need to get any ideas about what Roman was doing following Virgil upstairs.

“Just putting my bag away.” Roman shrugged, and glanced back to meet Remy’s eyes. “Gonna’ claim a room for myself. Why?”

Remy still looked a little bit suspicious, even behind the sunglasses (who wore sunglasses to a mountain in the _winter_? And people said Roman was the dramatic one), but if he wanted to say anything about it, he didn’t.

“Nothing, I guess. Should probably grab a room soon too, before all the good ones are taken.”

“They’re all fine, Rem.” Emile piped up. “It’s a winter lodge, they’re all practically the same.”

“Well, I like the one close to the bathroom that actually has a window.”

Roman ignored the rest of their conversation, and headed up the stairs as casually as possible. He walked down the hallway, taking a brief second to breathe in the smell of pine that had filled the lodge for as long as he could remember. It felt...strange, to be back here, to put it lightly, but maybe Remus had been right. The lodge had always felt like a second home to him, and maybe being back would cause that feeling to overwhelm the cold, numb feeling that had settled in his chest last year and hadn’t left since, despite how hard he’d tried to wipe it out himself. Despite the false smiles, throwing himself into rehearsals, stealing hidden kisses from Virgil, it was still there, and Roman was fairly sure it was going to destroy him from the inside out if he wasn’t able to figure out something to finally vanquish it.

The sound of a door opening a little ways down the hall jolted him out of his thoughts as the open door presented him with his favorite distraction from the gaping ache in his chest. Virgil leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, and a single eyebrow raised just slightly. He seemed a bit less tense now that he wasn’t being openly stared at by Remy, but there was still a kind of stiffness to him that Roman couldn’t help but be worried about.

“If you seriously think I’m gonna’ let you try anything when everyone’s right downstairs, you’ve got another thing coming.” Virgil said, and Roman sighed.

“Why does everybody assume that all I can think about is sex?” He asked, and walked forward to press a quick kiss to Virgil’s forehead. “Seriously. We may be twins, but I’m not Remus.”

“I’m just going off of past experience.” Virgil said, and relaxed a bit as Roman kissed him. Not nearly enough to be calm, though. “If you weren’t going for that, why’d you call me up here?”

“I can ask to be with you alone for other reasons, y’know.”

“Name one time you’ve done that.” Virgil shot back.

“Uh, last month, when I wanted to give you your birthday present.” Roman said. Sure, it probably wasn’t helping his argument that he couldn’t think of many times aside from that, but still. It counted.

“Alright, I’ll take it.” Virgil said, and pointedly ignored the way Roman gave a little fist bump. He didn’t get that many victories over Virgil, as much as he pretended like he did. Had to celebrate the ones he did get, no matter how small. “Seriously, though, what’s up?”

“So, I’ve been doing some thinking.” Roman said. “And y’know the guest cabin that’s a bit further down the mountain? I figured we could spend some time up there, just to get away from the stress and everything.”

If Roman had thought Virgil looked suspicious before, he definitely did now.

“You want me to come with you, alone, to a creepy cabin in the middle of the woods.”

“I mean, technically, you’re already alone with me in a cabin in the woods.” Roman pointed out, and Virgil sighed.

“You know what I mean, Ro.”

“Yeah, I do. But look, as much as you wanna’ pretend like you’re fine, I know that being around Remy and I at the same time is kind of stressing you out. I figured maybe we could take the first night, spend some time together without having to worry about the others, and then come back and chill with everyone else? Might help you to feel a bit better about the whole thing.”

“We can’t just disappear on them. Especially not--”

“Already told Remus.” Roman cut him off before Virgil could finish. Before he could bring up last year. “I know you don’t want everyone knowing, but he can keep a secret, believe it or not.”

“Not.” Virgil said with no hesitation.

“Fair.” Roman said, and reached out to take Virgil’s hand, squeezing it gently. “He won’t freak if he knows where we are, and I told him only to tell the others if they panic. They won’t think anything’s happened to us, it’ll be okay. I just thought you might like a little bit of time away from everyone.”

Virgil didn’t respond for a little bit, except for gently squeezing Roman’s hand back. His eyes didn’t meet Roman’s, and Roman was beginning to think that maybe this wasn’t one of his better ideas, after all--

“You sure it’ll be okay?” Virgil asked, and Roman didn’t hesitate before nodding.

“Positive. We can come back here after a while and it’ll be like we never left.” He said. “Rest of the weekend goes on like normal, and we can both just be together for a while. No secrets, no worries, no fear.”

“I can’t believe I’m agreeing with one of your ideas.” Virgil said, finally meeting Roman’s eyes again with the tiniest of smiles over his face.

“Y’know, they’re not all bad.” Roman said. “Like, for instance, I once had an idea to kiss a very pretty emo boy --”

“Oh my _god_ , you cheesy bastard.” Virgil said, and shoved him backwards, the smile on his face bigger now, and more genuine. “But, uh...yeah. Thanks. I know you don’t really want to miss out on hanging out with everyone just to deal with my stupid worries over nothing--”

“Hey, don’t talk like that.” Roman said. “I like spending time with you, V, you’re not an inconvenience. I’ll be just as happy being with you down at the cabin as I would be hanging out up here with everyone, I promise.”

Virgil smiled, and Roman recognized it as the kind of smile that Virgil wore whenever he didn’t completely believe whatever someone was saying, but was glad to hear it anyways.

“Sure, Princey. Give me ten minutes and I’ll meet you out back.”

“Perfect. Stealth mission to the cabin is a go.” Roman grinned, and Virgil snorted a laugh as he headed back into the room, closing the door behind him.

Roman started back down the hall towards the stairs, intending to head straight to the back porch of the lodge. Would he miss hanging out with all his friends for a night? Maybe a little. These trips were always fun, and seeing some of his friends in party mode was usually a sight to behold, but his boyfriend was uncomfortable, and he wasn’t about to have that. He’d give up all the parties in the world to spend time with Virgil, and maybe that was just the honeymoon phase talking, but to him, it was true.

Honestly, if Virgil asked him to, he’d slay a dragon for him. 

**\-- EMILE, 10:35 P.M. --**

“And...bam! That’s how it’s done!” Remus cheered as he got the fire started, and Emile couldn’t help but sigh as there was finally some semblance of warmth in the lodge. Sure, he’d been a little worried after Roman left to go upstairs and Remus had flippantly tossed the matches to the side, calling Roman a ‘paranoid bastard’, and went back to using just his lighter, but hey. There was a fire in the fireplace, and nowhere else, so Emile wouldn’t complain.

“Oh my gosh, that’s already so much better.” Emile said, and unzipped his puffy pink jacket, sliding it off his shoulders and throwing it over the back of the couch for the time being, sitting down next to it.

“What’d I tell you?” Remus grinned and took off his own coat, throwing it to the side without looking at where it fell. “I can be competent!”

“Barely.” Dee said from where he was seated on the stairs, and he stood up, stretching his arms over his head. “Well. Since Remus didn’t burn the house down, I’m gonna’ go take a power nap.”

“What? Oh, come on, DeeDee, we just got here!” Remus pouted. “You can’t be going off to bed already!”

“I didn’t say I was going to sleep, did I?” Dee said. “I said I’m taking a power nap. I didn’t get much sleep last night. I’m gonna’ crash super early if I don’t try and get a little bit of sleep now.”

Emile hadn’t really noticed it before, but Dee did look kind of like he hadn’t gotten much sleep. Sure, the dark circles under his eyes were nothing compared to the fake ones Virgil had, but they were still prominent enough to be noticeable. And he had been a little bit snippier than usual.

“Aww, boo.” Remus said. “You better be up by midnight, dude, or I’m not saving you any beer.” 

“Oh, because we’re sure to run out by midnight tonight.” Dee said, and rolled his eyes before he trudged up the stairs, disappearing onto the second floor.

“You don’t know me! Maybe I’ll drink it all to spite you!” Remus called after him, and Emile raised an eyebrow.

“That’s a lot, even for you.”

“Nothing’s a lot when you believe in yourself.” Remus shot a grin in Emile’s direction, and Emile was no stranger to the fact that Remus could and would push any and all boundaries he wanted, especially if there wasn’t any good reason to. He scooted over on the couch to move away from him, which only made Remus laugh.

“Oh, shit.”

Emile looked over to see that Remy already had his suitcase unzipped, and was rooting around in it, seemingly unable to find whatever he was after.

“So...I’m guessing we’re taking the living room?” Emile joked, and stood up to walk over to him. “I figured you would want to grab a room before you started unpacking.”

“Very funny.” Remy said dryly. “No, I knew I was forgetting something. I think I accidentally set my bag down by the cable car station or something and forgot to pick it back up again.”

“Which bag?”

“Y’know, the little black one that’s like…a little bit bigger than a coin purse, or something? The one that I keep those instant coffee packets in?”

Oh, yeah. The emergency coffee stash. It usually didn’t mean anything good whenever Remy pulled that out of his pocket, but he carried it with him practically everywhere, “just in case”. As long as Emile had known him, “emergencies” that constituted Remy using a packet of instant coffee included being awake earlier than five a.m., being an hour away from a Starbucks, or when someone was giving Remy a headache. Emile wasn’t about to judge his boyfriend on how he dealt with being annoyed.

“Oh. You sure it didn’t just fall out of your pocket, or something?” Emile asked.

“Maybe, I’m not sure.” Remy sighed, and zipped up his suitcase again. He stood up, casually stretching his arms over his head. “Guess I’ll go find it. Be back in...I don’t know, thirty minutes, or something? However long it takes me to find it.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Emile asked, and ignored the prominent whip noise that suddenly came from where Remus was sitting by the fire. Ha-ha. “It’s kind of dark out--”

“You wanna’ protect me from it being dark out?” Remy asked, and raised an eyebrow at him. “The path’s not that long, babe, and I’m pretty sure a black bag is going to stick out against. Y’know. Snow.”

“Yeah, I know that.” Emile said. “It’s just, I don’t know, maybe you shouldn’t be alone?”

“Em, you’re sweet, but I can handle walking down a path that’s dark and maybe coming across a deer. I’ll be fine.”

Emile believed him on that front, really, he did. Remy was a lot tougher than people gave him credit for, and Emile was certain Remy could probably intimidate a bear into backing down if said bear got between him and an easy way to get coffee. Still, as much as he didn’t want to bring the past back up, he didn’t like the idea of not knowing where Remy was. The last thing he wanted was for his boyfriend to disappear in the middle of the night over a couple of packets of instant coffee. Besides, going with him and having an extra pair of eyes to look wouldn’t hurt, right? 

~~**Should Emile:** ~~

~~**Let Him Go? Or Insist On Coming?** ~~

_VOTING CLOSED_

**\-----------------  
**

_Butterfly Effect Discovered:_

_Roman Talks to Remus -- Remus Knows Virgil and Roman are at the Cabin_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i keep forgetting to mention this, but fun fact, this story actually has two creators! i'm writing this fic, but the actual story itself is a product of many, many long texting sessions with my friend gii, or @fearful-quartet on tumblr! this story is just as much hers as it is mine, and we've actually been thinking about both of us writing some oneshots to go along with it once the main fic is done, if y'all would be interested in that :)


	10. Darkness: Into the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Into the darkness, everyone goes. Where they end up, no one knows.

**\- YOU CHOSE: INSIST ON COMING -**

“I mean...it’ll probably go a lot faster if I’m there to help you look, right?” Emile shrugged, and this time, he could see Remus out of the corner of his eye making a whipping gesture with his hand along with the noise. “Dude, seriously?”

“What? Not like it’s a secret that you’re whipped as hell.” Remus said, sending a mischievous grin in his direction.

“Oh, can it, Remus.” Remy said.

“Y’see, this is why Dee can’t just up and leave to nap when we just got here.” Remus said. “He’d back me up. No fair, going two against one.”

“You’re the one who started it.” Remy shot back, although an amused kind of smirk was playing on the corners of his lips, the kind of smirk that told Emile exactly what he needed to know -- Remy was definitely aware that Emile was, admittedly, a little bit whipped for him. He didn’t need Remus to tell either of them that.

“Wow. No back up for the guy hosting the party. How rude.” Remus sighed over-dramatically. “My only friends, hanging me out to dry because they can’t admit that Emile is in love to the point where it’s sickening--”

“Shut up, dude.” Emile said, and though there was no real bite to his words, Remus gasped anyway, throwing his hand over his heart.

“And Emile! Insulting me! I’ve done it, everyone, I’ve made the precious little gem say a mean word--”

“Remus.” Remy said, and Remus thankfully gave up the act, letting his hand drop back to his side.

“Fine. Buzzkill.” He smirked. “I gotta’ go check on some stuff, anyway. Don’t get too lightheaded from all your weird couple-y garbage.”

“You’re just jealous.” Remy said.

“In your dreams!” Remus called back, but was already halfway out the door, casually flipping them both off as he left.

“Christ, he’s nuts.” Remy snorted, and shook his head in exasperation before he looked back to Emile. “Are you sure you wanna’ come, babe? I don’t really care, I probably didn’t even drop it that far off. Probably will take all of ten minutes, and you hate the cold.”

“So do you.” Emile said. “Is it really that crazy that I want to help you look for something?”

“Not for you, no.” Remy smiled. “You’re a sweetheart, Em.”

He could pretend to ignore Remus’ jokes all he wanted, but Emile couldn’t deny that he definitely had a point. Watching Remy smile like that, that soft kind of smile that was only reserved for Emile, made Emile’s heart flutter in a way that frankly should have been embarrassing. It was a sort of smile that Emile associated with _“I am going to kiss you senseless, you absolute idiot”_ , because it was definitely one of his favorite things that Remy had ever said to him that accompanied that smile, and just knowing that something as simple as offering to help him look for a bag in the snow elicited that smile made Emile almost feel giddy.

“Thanks, I try.” Emile said, and earned another snort of laughter from his boyfriend. “Besides, the buddy system works for a reason, and, it’ll go much faster with two pairs of eyes rather than one, right?”

“I should call Logan out here to start a debate with you on this if you’re this determined.” Remy said.

“Try me, I’ll win.”

“It’s Logan. It takes a miracle to beat him.”

“No miracles necessary. I want to help you, I’ll win.”

Remy rolled his eyes with a more playful sigh, and headed back towards the entrance of the cabin, casually motioning for Emile to follow.

“Alright, fine, let’s go, Romeo.” He said. “The real miracle will be if I’ll be able to keep my focus on anything without getting distracted by your stupidly pink jacket.”

“Why do you hate my jacket?” Emile asked, following after him with a smile on his face. Remy’s frustrations with Emile’s color choice for his winter coat was a topic that had come up so randomly the first time Remy had mentioned it, that the two of them probably couldn’t have stopped it from becoming an ongoing joke if they tried.

“I could spot you from Mars, babe.”

“Maybe that’s the goal.”

“You want aliens to come and abduct you?”

“If it means I get to finally meet Stitch, then _yes_ , why would you even ask?” 

**\-- VIRGIL, 10:43 P.M. --**

Virgil stood out on the back porch of the cabin, and leaned against the snow-covered railing. The biting wind that had kicked up slightly since they’d initially made it to the lodge was gently tugging at his hood as he squinted out across the forest, trying to make out whatever “guest cabin” that Roman had claimed to exist. Wherever it was, the forest was way too dense to see it from the lodge, and Virgil couldn’t tell if that made him more or less uneasy. It’d be nice to get away, sure, but just how far away would they be getting? He still didn’t like the idea of freaking everyone out, after all, especially given what happened last year --

“And, we’ve been successfully exiled.”

Virgil let out a slight yelp as a pair of arms wrapped around his torso from behind with no warning, only to immediately relax when those same arms and that voice were familiar to him.

“I don’t think it counts as ‘exiled’ when you do it to yourself.” Virgil said, and leaned back into Roman’s arms.

“Well. Thought that counts.” Roman shrugged, and rested his chin on Virgil’s shoulder. He looked out over the same view that had Virgil’s thoughts captivated moments before, and pressed a quick kiss to Virgil’s jaw.

“You are insanely lucky that Dee went up to grab a room. You know that, right?” Virgil asked, and Roman only hummed in response. “Seriously. Wouldn’t have mattered what excuse I came up with, he would’ve seen right through me.”

“And he didn’t, and now we can escape to our own world for a bit.” Roman said.

“Yeah, about that. How far is this cabin supposed to be, anyway?” Virgil asked, and tilted his head just slightly to meet Roman’s eyes. “Can’t even see it from here.”

“Not far. Just down the trail a bit.” Roman shrugged, and let go of Virgil. As much as he would have denied it, Virgil followed where he moved for a split second as Roman let go, wanting to be held for just a few seconds longer. “What, can’t take a little bit of a hike, J. Delightful?”

Virgil gave him a blank stare for a few seconds. What?

“Y’know? From Heathers?” Roman said, and after a few more seconds of total silence, he sighed. “God, I waste my best material on you.”

“You could just stop with your weird obsession with giving me nicknames all the time and just stick to one.” Virgil smirked. “I don’t have to put any thought into it when I call you Princey.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“The fact that you still react the same way regardless.”

“Alright then, _Snot Topic_ \--”

“Oh, boy, trouble in paradise?” Remus’ voice rang out, and Virgil jumped what felt like seven feet in the air before Remus himself rounded the corner with a grin on his face that definitely meant trouble. “I’m not walking in on a break up, am I? Be a shame if I was, would really put a damper on the two of you heading off by _yourselves_.”

Ugh. Out of all of their friends to find out first, it just had to be Remus.

“Dude, there’s this great thing.” Roman sighed, though an easy smile was still on his face. “It’s called trying to be inconspicuous. You should try it sometime.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Remus asked, and Virgil couldn’t help but snort at the way he’d said it, in almost exactly the same way as Roman had not even a minute before. For all their differences, the twins had some weird similarities. “And you know where being inconspicuous gets you?”

Before Roman could even respond, Remus slid his hand out of his pocket and dangled a set of keys close to his face. Whatever retort Roman was going to make immediately died in his throat.

“...oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” Remus grinned, and tossed the keys -- not to Roman, like Virgil had been expecting, but instead, in Virgil’s direction. Virgil just barely managed to catch them, a slight yelp escaping him as keys suddenly came flying in his direction. “I’m entrusting the keys to your boyfriend, since apparently, despite what everyone says, I’m actually the responsible twin.”

“Okay, forgetting the keys one time--” Roman started.

“Twice.”

“Twice -- whatever. It doesn’t make you the responsible twin.”

“Whatever you say, RoRo.” Remus stuck his tongue out at roman like he was six, and turned towards Virgil. “Alrighty, so, since Dad isn’t here to give the boyfriend speech, I will. You hurt my brother, and I’ll castrate you. Cool?”

Roman sputtered, but luckily for him, Virgil had spent enough time around Remus to expect those kinds of threats. Maybe they weren’t the best of friends, but Virgil suspected he probably should’ve seen this coming.

“What happens if he hurts me?” Virgil asked, a slight smirk across his lips.

“Oh, not even he’s stupid enough to dump you.” Remus replied, and Roman let out another indignant noise. “How he got you to agree to date him in the first place is beyond me, you’re way cooler than he is, Virgey.”

“ _Betrayed_.” Roman gasped. “Betrayed, slandered by my own blood--”

“Yeah. Pretty sure I’ll wake up from this nightmare soon enough.” Virgil deadpanned, and Remus cackled.

“My own brother and my own boyfriend, so cruel, so unjust--” Roman kept going despite Remus’ laughter, and honestly, Virgil couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Remus laugh like that or Roman get into theatrics so easily. Maybe this trip was a good idea, after all.

“Okay, Ro, I went out and turned on the generator earlier, so the path should be lit up.” Remus said, once he got his laughter back under control, and he grinned in Virgil’s direction. “Don’t get lost, it’s _spooky_ out there.”

“Uh-huh. Just like every other forest at night.” Roman said. “No surprises there.”

“Just saying.” Remus shrugged. “Never know what could be lurking behind every corner--”

“Alright, quit it.”

“Ugh, _buzzkill_.” Remu sighed, shooting one last knowing grin in Virgil’s direction that was certainly just a move to tease him. “Have fun.”

The door back into the lodge shut behind him, and Virgil let out a sigh.

“Y’know, your brother’s kind of the worst.”

“Really?” Roman grinned, and took Virgil’s hand. “Had no idea. Let’s get going.”

Virgil let Roman pull him down the stairs from the porch into the snow below them, and squeezed his hand gently as they headed towards the trail that supposedly led to the cabin -- sure, Remus had turned on the generator, Virgil could just barely make out a couple street lamps along the path, but that was just it. He could barely make them out. They were a lot dimmer than he had expected, and that left the path pretty dark.

“Maybe you guys should invest in more lamps, or something.” Virgil said, only to watch as Roman pulled his phone out of his pockets.

“See, Virgil, there’s this great thing called technology.” He teased, switching on his phone’s flashlight and lighting up the path ahead. “And luckily for you, it’s cheaper and easier than adding a bunch of lamps.”

“Cheaper?” Virgil asked, raising an eyebrow. “So you wouldn’t care about paying for a new phone if I took that one and threw it off the mountain, since you’re being a smartass?

“Oh, _funny_.” Roman grinned, and kept past Virgil, teasingly holding his phone above Virgil’s head, just out of his reach. “Like to see you grab it, shortstack.”

“That nickname isn't even clever.”

“Doesn’t need to be clever to work, like you so lovingly pointed out.” Roman said, and kept walking down the path. “Or, if you want, I can just turn it off. Leave us alone in the dark--”

“Oh my god, you jackass.” Virgil smirked, and sped up just a tad to keep pace with his boyfriend and the light. “That’s your ending goal anyway, it’s not a secret.”

“How am I gonna’ convince you I’m not my brother?”

“Actually be a gentleman somewhere other than a stage.”

Roman feigned offense as they reached the gate that fenced off the main “grounds” of the lodge. As if to prove him wrong, and it probably was to prove him wrong, Roman opened the gate and held it open, waiting for Virgil to step through first.

“Aww, you can be chivalrous.” Virgil said, and pulled his own phone out of his pocket as he stepped through the gate. Even with the flashlight, it was still insanely dark along the trail, and he’d probably go insane if there was nothing but the eerie silence of the mountain in between their voices to listen to. He knew himself well enough by now -- his brain sounded the alarm whenever someone so much as looked at him wrong, it definitely was not going to take “dark and spooky night in a forest straight out of a horror movie” well.

“Don’t I get points for trying?” Roman asked, and let the gate fall closed behind him.

“Nope.” Virgil didn’t even hesitate before he replied, and finally found the playlist he’d been looking for. There. Now there wasn’t a terrifying kind of non-silence between them whenever they stopped talking. And maybe it would be fun to listen to Roman gripe about his music taste for the millionth time, even though Virgil had proudly hit the point where Roman would admit that he liked a couple of Panic! songs in front of him.

“You can’t play like...I don’t know, Taylor Swift, or something, once?”

“The day Taylor Swift ever plays on my phone, I want you to put a bullet between my eyes.”

“And you say I’m the dramatic one.” Roman retorted, and shined the flashlight by Virgil’s feet as they walked to keep an eye out for any tree roots or stones that could trip them up along the path. “So. You psyched yet? Because you don’t look excited to be getting a place to ourselves for a while.”

“I’ll be psyched when we get to the cabin, Princey.” Virgil said, sliding his free hand into his jacket pocket for some extra warmth. “Not totally excited about the cold and the dark.”

“Aw, c’mon, Brad Pitiful, it’s like an adventure!” Roman grinned. “Like a...a...oh, damn, what’s a good word for like, uh, mixing cabin and escapade?”

“If you wanted an answer to that, you should’ve come out here with Patton.” Virgil said, and he could feel Roman’s puppy-dog eyes burning a sad hole in the back of his head. Of course he caved. “Uh...es-cab-ade?”

“This is why I love you.”

“Pretty sad reason.” Virgil snorted, and kept his eyes focused on the ground below for a while. Roman stayed quiet for a little bit, letting the sound of Virgil’s music drift around them for a while, and Virgil let his thoughts go.

It wasn’t really all that bad, with the music playing and Roman close behind him. Not as bad as walking down a path he’d never been down through a forest he’d rarely been in, anyway. It was sort of peaceful, in that weird way that listening to a bunch of people screaming lyrics out of his phone could be, anyway. The snow was falling lightly, once again sticking in his hair and on his jacket, and crunch of snow under his and Roman’s boots was almost rhythmic, a steady crunch crunch crunch as they made their way down the trail. As far as Virgil could see, there weren’t even any animals close by, and he felt oddly like the scene would make for a pretty Christmas card, or something. He and his boyfriend walking through what was essentially a slightly spooky version of a Christmas card. Hell, it almost made it easy to forget about--

His thoughts practically disintegrated in his mind when he spotted the bright yellow flag of police tape blowing in the wind up ahead, and it only got worse when he could feel Roman suddenly tense up beside him. The police tape was wrapped firmly around a tree, with one bit flying out aimlessly in the wind. It was like immediately being thrown back into the reality of their surroundings.

It would be a good idea to ignore it. To keep going, and pretend it never existed.

So, naturally, Virgil made an incredibly stupid observation out loud.

“Police tape.”

“Yeah.” Roman said, and his voice sounded a little bit strangled. “It’s, uh. Everywhere. Around here. They combed over practically every inch of the woods.”

“You would think they’d clean it up.” Virgil said, and immediately wanted to kick himself. Stop talking, stop talking, even acknowledging it was a bad idea.

“Well, they. They haven’t.” Roman sounded like he was choking on every other word to get it out. “They haven’t closed the investigation. Officially, that is, so...I guess they have to leave it up until they, uh. Find something.”

Virgil watched him stare at the tape for a few more seconds. Roman had a forlorn, faraway sort of look in his eyes, and Virgil bit his lip. He knew exactly who Roman was thinking about, it didn’t take a genius to know, but what Virgil knew he couldn’t know was the ugly swirl of emotions running rampant in Roman’s head. Virgil didn’t even have siblings. He couldn’t understand what it was like to have them, and certainly knew nothing about how it would feel to unexpectedly lose them when they were supposed to be on his watch. All he knew for sure was that it had caused Roman’s smile to feel hollow for way longer than expected, and even now, he was still debating whether any smile that came from Roman was genuine, or if a constant barrage of guilt was eating away at the back of his head. Survivor’s guilt was a bitch and a half, Virgil knew that much, and part of him wanted to assure him that it couldn’t be survivor’s guilt yet. They hadn’t found any bodies, they might not be dead at all -- but Virgil had never been an optimist.

Instead, he took Roman’s free hand, gently pulling him to continue up the path.

“C’mon. You still have to see me get excited about the cabin, remember?” He said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle, and that had been happening a lot since he started dating Roman.

Roman blinked, finally taking his eyes away from the tape, and there was that hollow, forced smile that made the pit in Virgil’s stomach grow larger.

“You’re right. Better keep going.” He said, and Virgil noted that he didn’t pull his hand away from Virgil’s this time. Instead, he lightly squeezed it, and Virgil didn’t hesitate before squeezing back. It had become a sort of grounding thing, back when they were first getting together, that came up when Virgil had first spent the night in secret. He’d been fast asleep, only to be woken up in a panic as Roman had shot bolt upright in bed beside him at four in the morning, gasping for air and sweating, and Virgil only needed all of three seconds to figure out what happened. He had taken Roman’s hand, scared what would happen if he tried to hug him and therefore restrain him, and squeezed it. He didn’t remember exactly everything he’d murmured to him that night to calm him back down, but one thing had stuck out. _I’ve got you_.

Now, every time one of them was upset, and the other would squeeze their hand. _I’ve got you. I’m here, you’re safe, the nightmare was just a nightmare_. Virgil didn’t even need to say it anymore, and he was sure that Roman heard the same thing, too.

Roman relaxed the further they got from the police tape, though he didn’t let go of Virgil’s hand, and as Roman relaxed, so did Virgil, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

Only to immediately feel his exasperation kick back in when they came across a giant tree laying across the path, blocking it completely.

“Oh, seriously?” Virgil asked, and Roman snorted a laugh, dropping his hand. “What, Princey, did you do this on purpose?”

“Yeah, Virgil, I came out here and knocked over a tree as a prank.” Roman said. “So devious of me, I know. Couldn’t wait to see the look on your face.”

“God, I hope you’re kidding.” Virgil said, and ignored the incredulous noise that came from Roman. “You didn’t think to check the path before making your grand escape plan?”

“Well, it’s not very often that trees that big fall over.”

“Okay, well, what now?” Virgil asked, glancing back in Roman’s direction. He wouldn’t have minded trying to climb over it if he could, and Roman certainly wouldn’t, either, but with the way the tree itself seemed almost precarious, like it would slide down over the trail and down the cliff that the trail overlooked if something touched it, made him way too nervous to try. “Back to the lodge?”

“Nope! No way.” Roman said. “I promised you a night away. We’re resourceful adventurers, and there’s probably another way through here.”

Virgil looked to where Roman was pointing, only to see what looked like an entrance to a cave a little bit further down the opposite direction of the trail.

“A cave?”

“Nah, it’s a mineshaft.” Roman said, and shrugged his shoulders. “This place used to be a mine like fifty years before Mom and Dad bought it for the lodge. There’s all sorts of crazy abandoned mineshafts around here. Most of them are blocked off, but I think I remember trying to sneak into this one with Remus when we were kids. It’s harmless. Might lead closer to the cabin.”

Virgil stared at him blankly for a couple seconds.

“You’re suggesting we go into an abandoned mineshaft. And just see where it takes us.”

“Sure, why not?” Roman asked, tilting his head to the side, as if Virgil was the crazy one for doubting him. Without waiting for input, Roman headed towards the mouth of the cave, and Virgil couldn’t help but sputter.

“Roman, we are so _not_ doing this--”

“Can’t hear you, Marilyn Morose, I’m on a cabin adventure.”

Virgil let out a petulant sort of noise as he had no choice but to follow. He certainly wasn’t going to leave Roman to wander around abandoned mineshafts alone, and even if he could, he wasn’t up to walking back down the dark path by himself.

“Sometimes, I wonder if Remus is really the crazy twin.”

“Oh, put a sock in it --”

Roman’s words were suddenly cut off by his own scream as he leaned forward into the opening, and the flimsy wooden barrier that only partially blocked it off snapped in half. He disappeared from Virgil’s view as he fell forward, and panic closed around Virgil’s throat, tight and nauseating.

“ _Roman!_ ” Virgil didn’t care that his scream practically reverberated across the mountains as he raced forward, skidding to a halt just before the drop into the mineshaft. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears, so loud he couldn’t even hear his music anymore, and he only managed to catch his breath once he saw Roman again, barely six feet below him, totally unharmed.

“I’m okay!” Roman shouted back up, though he sounded a bit breathless himself. “Totally fine! Not a scrape, or anything!”

“Jesus Christ, you scared the shit out of me!” Virgil said, resting his hand over his racing pulse.

“How do you think _I_ felt?” Roman asked, and looked back up at Virgil with a slight grin on his face. He really did look totally fine. A little surprised, and a bit ruffled from the sudden fall, but fine nonetheless. “I was just planning on looking!”

“Yeah, let’s not do that anymore.” Virgil said. His heartbeat was slowing back down to normal, but he already felt like he’d had enough adventuring, and they’d barely been outside for ten minutes. “Do you think you can get out? I think the adventure ends here.”

“Uh, well. There’s nothing to climb back out.” Roman shrugged, and glanced further down the mineshaft. A few feet away was a minecart, still on the tracks, in between two panels that were effectively blocking the path. “I think the only way out is to test my theory, see where the mineshaft takes us.”

“That’s a horrible idea on so many levels.”

“You got a better idea, Surly Temple?”

Virgil...did not. While the fall down wasn’t enough to hurt him, it was far enough that Roman definitely couldn’t get back out on his own without something to help him, and Virgil knew for a fact that he didn’t have the upper body strength to pull Roman out himself.

Virgil sighed. Mineshaft adventure, it was. 

~~**Should Virgil be:** ~~

~~~~**Brave? or Cautious?** **  
**_~~“I’m coming down.” “Can you move that cart?”~~_

_VOTING CLOSED_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cannot put into words the catharsis that was rewriting my least favorite until dawn scene and banishing all of the terrible innuendos from existence.


	11. Darkness: Adventures and a Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two look for a way out, and two search for blankets.

**YOU CHOSE: CAUTIOUS**

“Can you at least try to move that cart there, or something?” Virgil asked, pointing towards the cart. “Maybe you can push it backwards, climb out?”

“Aw, you worrywart.” Roman sighed. “I’ll try, but no promises.”

“Fine.” Virgil sai **d** . He shifted to sit d **o** wn on his knees, just to get a bit lower to the ground in case this whole thing actually worked and he needed to help and pull Roman out with what little strength he could offer. It really was dark dow **n** there, and the only reason he could really see Roman as he went back to **t** ry to move the minecart was solely because he was the only thing down there that was moving.

Virgil could hear the creak of old metal, along with Roman grunting in frustration, but after a few seconds, that went quiet.

“Yeah, **t** he **r** e’s, **u** h...I don’t know what to call it.” Roman’s voice called up. “Y’know, those barrier things, that stop the cart **s** from going too far? **T** rack stops right behind it. The only way I’ll be able to push this thing is forward.”

“Damn it.” Virgil muttered.

“And it’s really heavy, Virge. You’re gonna’ have to come down here to help move it.”

Virgil tensed, scooting an inch backwards from the ledge, dread settling heavy in his stomach. Nope, no, no way was he going into an abandoned, possibly unstable mineshaft. No way. Not happening.

Apparently, he didn’t need to say anything for Roman to sense his trepidation. Roman walked back toward the cliff, finally letting Virgil see his face again in the moonlight streaming in from the opening.

“Hey. I promise I’ll catch you.”

“ **T** hat’s not the problem I **h** av **e** with this, Ro.”

“Yeah, well. Not much else we can do right now.” Roman shrugged, and reached a hand up towards Virgil. “I know you don’t like it, but it won’t be that bad. Besides, I’m supposed to be your knight in shining armor, right? Gotta’ have something to protect you from.”

That actually managed to get Virgil to snort a laugh. “Sap.”

“Always.” Roman smiled up at him.

Virgil hesitated for a few seconds, but finally caved, and was suddenly very glad that Patton wasn’t around to turn it into a pun. He shifted to swing his legs over the cliff side, and carefully slid off the cliff into the mineshaft. He stumbled a bit as he hit the uneven floor, but true to his word, Roman caught his arm, steadying him.

When Virgil looked up, though, Roman’s eyes were still staring up towards the entrance to the mineshaft.

“What?” Virgil asked. He looked up towards the entrance, only to see nothing there, and when he looked back, Roman was blinking.

“Nothing. I just thought I saw...I don’t know. Trick of the light, or whatever.” He said, and kept going before Virgil could question him about it. “Anyway. Not so bad down here, right?”

“Get me back out of this place in ten minutes and I’ll agree with you.” Virgil said, and didn’t waste any more time before heading over to the minecart, squinting in the dark. “Think you could get the flashlight again?”

“Oh, yeah, got it.” Roman said, and Virgil flinched as Roman turned his flashlight on, illuminating the mineshaft. He set it in his coat pocket with the light facing outward to set both hands on the cart. “Ready?”

“Sure.” Virgil said, and set his hands on the other side. “Three, two, _one_ \--”

Roman hadn’t been kidding. Even with the two of them pushing, the cart was heavy. **V** irgil guessed he probably should have expected that, since it c **o** uldn’t have been any younger than fifty years, and seemed to be sol **i** d metal, but still. They managed to push it just far enough to slip between the barriers and the **c** art, and move further into the min **e** shaft.

“I hate this.” Virgil said as he caught his breath, his hands still resting on the cart.

“We really need to work on your sense of adventure.” Roman said, and reached over to take Virgil’s hand, pulling him away from the cart. “Let’s go, Brad Pitiful. You wanna’ be out of here sooner, we have to get going sooner.”

Virgil sighed, but let Roman pull him a **w** ay and further into the darkness, with only Roman’s flas **h** light lighting the way. Unsafe was an understatement for h **o** w the mineshaft felt. Borderline fatal felt like a better one as Virgil glanced around at the cracking **s** tone walls, the crooked wooden beams, the way that rust was coating **e** very square inch of metal Virgil could spot. He squeezed Roman’s hand, tightly.

“You and Remus wanted to _play_ here?”

“Again, sense of adventure.” Roman said, but he squeezed Virgil’s hand back. “It’s kind of cool, really. I mean, think about it. This is definitely the kind of place where you’d run into a ghost or something.”

“Do not tell me that.” Virgil said.

“I meant a sad ghost, not the scary kind.” Roman said. “Like...some old miner whose soul has been trapped here for centuries, and we’d have to find the one object that he’s linked to so that we can free his spirit and he can go see his family in the afterlife. That kind of ghost.”

“Ghosts aren’t real, Roman.”

“Don’t crush my spirit-rescuing dreams -- woah.”

Roman faltered, and Virgil stopped dead beside him as he saw what Ro **m** an’s flashlight had landed **o** n. It was a small area off to the side of the minecart tracks, where a few oil dr **u** ms were randomly placed around, alongside a couple of extra wooden **t** ables. It looked like the sort of place where, if miners were still down **h** ere, they could take a bit of a break, if the faded papers and broken glass bottles scattered around had anything to say about it, but that wasn’t what was catching their eyes. Instead, it was the several half-melted candles sitting on a few of the barrels, and the strange, foreign symbols painted across the walls in what Virgil hoped beyond hope was just dark red paint.

“What the hell?” Roman muttered, and if Virgil hadn’t been cutting off the circulation to Roman’s hand before, he definitely was now.

“Hate this. Hate this _so much_.” He said, and as he took a step backwards, Roman took one forward. “Uh, what the hell are you doing? Last I checked, we should stay away from creepy Satanic shrine things that look like they’re written in blood.”

“Can’t be real blood, r **i** ght?” Roman asked. “Pretty sure Mom and Dad would have heard about crazy blood **s** hrines before they bought the mountain.”

“Yeah, uh, something tells me that would’ve lowered the real estate.” Virgil said, the sarcasm in his voice just barely masking the ever-growing pit of dread in his stomach. “I want out of here, Roman, let’s go--”

Almost as if on cue, one of the wooden beams holding up the ceiling that was a few feet away from them crashed to the ground, and Virgil couldn’t help but shriek as he jumped backwards away from it. Thankfully, he did get some proof that his boyfriend wasn’t overwhelming stupid in his “quest for adventure”, as he also shot back with a yelp of alarm.

“You okay?” Roman asked the second he composed himself.

“Honestly? No.” Virgil said. “Not crushed by a wooden beam, yes, but definitely not okay.”

“Yeah. I don’t think this place is exactly up to code.” Roman said, shining his flashlight up where the wooden beam had been not a minute prior.

“I could have told you that ten minutes ago.” Virgil said, and squeezed Roman’s hand again. “Can we please go?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I’m adventured out for a little bit.” Roman said, and started leading Virgil further down the mineshaft. He wasn’t meandering around and looking at everything in fascination anymore, which Virgil was grateful for. Now, he was on a mission to get the hell out of there, and while Virgil would have arg **u** ed that he really should have bee **n** on that mission from the **s** econd he fell in, h **e** was just happy that Roman was g **e** tting the picture now. “Come o **n**. If I’m remembering right, there’s another entrance into this mineshaft that opened up a bit further down the path to the cabin? That should be a way out.”

“I’d be happy if the way out led into the middle of nowhere right now.” Virgil admitted. “At least then we’d be above ground.”

“No arguments here.” Roman said, and Virgil sucked in a breath as the cavern they were walking through started to get narrower the further along they continued. He’d probably have to add claustrophobia onto his already long list of fears when they got out of there.

They were quiet for the rest of the walk out, as if they were both afraid that their voices alone would be enough to bring the entire support system crashing down, but thankfully, the soft glow of moonlight came from up ahead before too long, and Virgil let out a sigh of relief as he spotted an exit leading out into the snow. Thank God.

“Okay, I take back everything I said earlier about you leaving me outside in the cold.” Virgil said, the second his boots landed safely in snow, and he was breathing in fresh air. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy to be outside. No more mineshaft adventures, ever.”

“Okay, okay. No more unstable mineshafts.” Roman said, and Virgil shot a pointed look his way.

“No more mineshafts, Princey. I don’t care what state they’re in.”

“Fine.” Roman sighed, but he squeezed Virgil’s hand again, gently. “You’re okay, though, right?”

The concern on Roman’s face was so genuine that Virgil couldn’t help but feel at least a little bit of his annoyance melting away. Not quite all of it (it was still one hundred percent Roman’s fault they’d even been in the mineshaft), but some nonetheless.

“I’m okay.” Virgil promised. “Let’s just get to the cabin with as little adventure as possible from here on out, please?”

“...not even the actually fun ones?”

“ _Roman._ ”

“I’m kidding, only kidding.” Roman said, and let go of Virgil’s hand. “Good news is, I was right, see? Still on the path to the cabin.”

Virgil followed Roman as he continued down the twisting trail, and as much as he didn’t like dark forests, it was definitely worlds better than being in a claustrophobic mineshaft. He reached up to massage his fingers, working out the soreness from being clenched so tightly for that long.

“Y’know, when you and Remus said ‘guest cabin’, I figured it would be, like. Maybe a five minute walk away?” Virgil said. “Not a partially life threatening trek through the woods? I hear that’s not the best strategy for making guests feel welcome.”

“It adds to the mood.” Roman called back, an easy grin on his face.

“What mood?”

“Uh, the classic cabin mood? What’s the point of coming up into the woods if you’re not going to get a real feel for them?”

“If a real feel means fearing for my life, I’ll skip it, thanks.” Virgil said.

“It wasn’t that bad-- ooh, here!” Roman said, and jogged up slightly ahead to where Virgil could see another little viewing platform with what looked like a notice board alongside the single telescope that sat by the edge. “Okay, so, it might not be the cabin, but we could just take a quick break? Look over the mountains?”

“You are way too excited about telescopes on a mountain you’ve practically grown up on.” Virgil said, but he couldn’t help the slight smile on his face.

“What? I like seeing what I can find. There’s all sorts of animals up here. You can always find something if you look hard enough.” Roman shrugged, and walked over to use the telescope.

Virgil rolled his eyes, and instead, checked out the notice board. There wasn’t too much on it, just a simple warning regarding the bigger animals that lived up on the mountain. Deer, wolves, and...oh, great. Bears. Wouldn’t that just be the icing on top of the trek?

“Ro? I swear to god, if we run into a bear, I’m never going along with any of your ideas ever again.”

“We’re not gonna’ run into a bear, chill.” Roman said, looking back up from telescope. “My family’s been up here for years. The paths are well marked. The bears know by now that paths mean humans. They stick to their territory, we stick to ours. It’ll be fine.”

“...sure.” Virgil said. The slight tremor in his hands was probably just because of the cold. He slid his hands into his pockets, curling them into fists to try and stop the sudden trembling. “See anything good?”

“Can see the cabin from here.” Roman said. “Here, look. Not too far off, and perfect to stay the night in. What’d I tell you?”

Virgil rolled his eyes, but took the telescope from Roman. He was right, he could see the cabin from here, and while it looked a bit less than perfect, it did look kind of cozy. And at least they’d be alone, that’d be nice--

Virgil froze as a flash of movement came across his vision, a flash that he could swear looked like a human figure down by the cabin. He reached up to zoom in further, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it was, but all that he managed to see was a closer image of the cabin. Nothing there. Nothing moving at all.

“Virge? You okay?”

Virgil pulled back from the telescope, and forced himself to relax. He was on edge from the mineshaft and the bear warning, that was all it was. It was his anxiety acting up on him, it happened all the time. Nothing to be worried about.

“I’m fine.” Virgil promised. No need to freak Roman out over what was probably -- definitely -- nothing. “Just thought I saw something moving by the cabin. Just a tree branch. I think I’m just kind of on edge.”

“Oh, gotcha.” Roman said, and took Virgil’s hand again to continue leading him down the path. “Okay, no more telescope time. We’re getting down to the cabin so that you can get a chance to breathe.”

“I’m breathing just fine, Ro.”

“I mean actually breathe.” Roman said. “Not much further down this path, now.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, but let Roman lead his down a creaking set of wooden stairs, and across a fairly rickety bridge that let them cross over one of the mountain’s rivers. Granted, Virgil’s definition of rickety had just been completely redefined thanks to the mineshaft, and really, the bridge didn’t feel nearly as unstable as the mineshaft had. Still, he found a reason to sigh the second they were over the bridge and walking towards a clearing in the path.

“I hate you. I hate you and your brother and your inability to double check things.”

Across the path was another fallen tree, and although this one was definitely much more stable than the first, it didn’t mean it wasn’t still huge, and completely blocking the path.

“How are we supposed to get to the cabin now?”

“You give up all too easily.” Roman smirked, and let go of his hand. Before Virgil could ask what he was doing, Roman was climbing up onto the fallen trunk, and stood on top of it, smirking down at Virgil. “This thing has been like this for years. Remus and I always climb over it when we come down here.”

“And you couldn’t warn me beforehand?”

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.” Roman shrugged, and crouched down, scooping a handful of snow off of the trunk. “But hey, at least I’m warning you about this.”

Virgil didn’t have much time to react before Roman threw the snowball, beaning him directly in the face.

“ _Hey--_ ”

“And that’s payback for earlier.” Roman grinned, and only got a scowl from Virgil in return.

Virgil reached up to wipe the snow off his face, and turned around. Alright. If Roman wanted a round two of this game, he could deliver. Hell, he’d knock him right back off the tree, if he wanted to play that way. He scooped up a handful of snow, packing it into a tight ball between his fingertips.

“Alright, if this is how you wanna’ play--”

Virgil cut himself off and lowered his hand as he turned around to find that Roman had completely disappeared off the top of the tree trunk. Virgil was pretty sure he would have heard something, even as he was packing the snowball, if Roman had left, but he hadn’t, and it seemed almost like Roman had vanished into thin air.

“...Roman?” Virgil called, and let the snowball fall from his hands as he took a step towards the tree trunk. 

Only for his blood to run cold as a piercing shriek rang through the night, identical to the one from when Roman had fallen into the mineshaft earlier.

_“Roman?!”_

**\--DEE, 10:44 P.M. --**

“Hey, Dee-Dee!”

Dee glanced back towards the open door of the room he’d chosen for himself, where Remus’ voice was yelling from.

“Yeah?” He called back, and turned back to his half-opened bag he’d dropped onto the bed, and unzipped it the rest of the way, rooting around for his pajama pants.

“You wanna’ come down here and help with the last of the unpacking?”

Knowing Remus, that was a very thinly veiled excuse to get him back downstairs and to try and convince him not to take the nap he desperately needed right now. Dee was all for spending time with Remus, really, especially around now, but unfortunately for Remus, Dee was also fairly strict about caring for himself. And at that exact moment, Dee needed to sleep.

“Uh, I’m just getting into bed!” He yelled back, finally finding his pajama pants tucked away at the bottom of his bag. So maybe not just, but close enough.

“Oh.” Remus’s voice called back, and Dee could already tell from his tone that it wasn’t going to end there. “And do you need any help with that?”

“Ha-ha.” Dee rolled his eyes. “Gonna’ take more than that, casanova.”

“Give me credit for trying!” Remus called in a sing-song voice, but if Dee listened carefully, he could hear faint footsteps getting quieter in the distance. Remus was right about one thing -- Dee would give him some credit. He didn’t always know when to quit, but with certain things, Dee being one of them, he knew when to stop.

Not that Dee was sure that he would mind if Remus didn’t stop, but that was a question to be answered another time.

Dee haphazardly tossed his pajama bottoms onto the unmade bed, and moved his bag to the floor. Only step left was to get some actual blankets for the bed, and he’d be set for a nice power nap. If the twins had set up the lodge the same way they had last year, then the blankets would be in the bottom drawer of the dresser, and--

Nothing. Empty. No blankets to be seen.

Dee sighed to himself, and started checking the other drawers for some blankets. It was freezing in the lodge, and sure, the heating would eventually kick in, but Dee couldn’t sleep in what felt like a meat locker. He needed blankets, dammit, and really, with the twins’ track record of getting the heating system to actually work, it seemed stupid that they wouldn’t bring extra blankets just in case.

After Dee had checked the last drawer with no luck, he shut it again with a slightly more exasperated sigh. Well. It seemed like he would be going back downstairs, if only for a little bit.

He left the room, making his way down the hall. He wasn’t racing, the blankets would be wherever Remus left them, they wouldn’t be going anywhere, but he still didn’t waste very much time as he started down the stairs towards the living room, where he could hear Logan, Patton, and Remus’ voices drifting up towards him.

“--you want us to go find what, exactly?” Logan was saying.

“An ouija board, dude.” Remus said, and Dee could hear the grin in his voice. “I’m pretty sure we got one in here somewhere. They’re fun.”

“They’re ridiculous.” Logan countered. “They’re not real--”

“You have an ouija board here?” Patton’s voice piped up.

“See, Patton agrees with me!”

“Patton didn’t say they were fun, he was clarifying--”

“I mean, I don’t think they’re not fun! I can’t really have an opinion, I’ve never tried one before, only ever seen them in movies and stuff.”

“Oh, yeah, Pat, they’re a blast. Used to mess around with them all the time. Roman and I would use them to try and mess with...uh--”

“Hey, Remus!” Dee hit the bottom of the stairs at what sounded like the exact right time to change the subject. “No blankets in the bedroom? Kind of a major oversight when the heating’s not on yet.”

“Oh, shit, I knew we were forgetting something.” Remus said, and the slight frown that had come over his face seconds prior seemed to disappear again, turning back into a more lighthearted grin. “They’re in the basement, I’ll show you.”

“Great.”

“Hey, why don’t you guys go try and find the ouija board while I help Dee get blankets?” Remus asked, turning back in Logan and Patton’s direction. Logan’s expression turned a little sour, but as he opened his mouth to say something, Patton beat him to the punch.

“Yeah, cool!” He said, and hopped up from his spot on the couch. “Come on, Lo, it’ll be like a scavenger hunt.”

Logan sputtered for a few seconds, and when he glanced back at Remus with a look that clearly said _help me_ , he received only a smirk in return.

“Uh...yeah. Sure. Okay. Sounds...great.” He said, and got up off the couch, following Patton out of the living room.

“Awesome.” Remus grinned, giving Logan a playful wave goodbye as he left the room, and then turned his attention back to Dee. “Alright, come on. Basement’s this way.”

As if Dee didn’t know where the basement was.

Still, he followed Remus down towards the basement door, only making a single pit stop for Remus to grab a flashlight.

“You’re not seriously thinking about playing around with an ouija board like we’re all seven, right?” Dee asked, raising an eyebrow in Remus’ direction. Sure, Remus liked creepy things, but he also tended to like real creepy things. Things that were disturbing because they could potentially happen to anyone. Dee figured he’d left his “scary ghost” phase behind a few years back.

“Oh, come on, Dee, live a little.” Remus grinned. “Besides, you’re gonna’ be sleeping, anyway, what do you care?”

“I don’t. I’m just surprised you do.” Dee said.

“I like weird shit, man, you know that.” Remus shrugged. “Besides, gives me an excuse to send Lo and Patton off on a special mission together. Figured we can use this weekend to try and give them some alone time, since they won’t do it themselves, y’know what I mean?”

“Oh, no. I’m not dealing with Remus Sanders, the matchmaker from hell this weekend, am I?” Dee asked, a smirk playing at the corner of his lips.

“Okay, look, you know I’m right!” Remus said. “I swear to god, all they need is just one thing! One crazy thing to bond over and everything will boil over and they’ll finally get together. It’s been killing me, Dee. They just need like...some traumatic event to send them into each other’s arms, or something.”

“Whatever you’re planning, just make sure it doesn’t involve setting Logan’s backpack on fire again.” Dee deadpanned.

“That was one time, and it was his idea.” Remus said, the exact same excuse he made every time Dee brought that up. “Watch your step, by the way. Stairs are uneven.”

“I can handle it, Ree. I’m a big boy.” Dee said, and followed Remus down the stairs into the basement. The flashlight was definitely going to come in handy. It was dark down there even when the few lightbulbs they had down there were on, and not only was it dark, but there was a lot of stuff in storage. It would take them forever to find the blankets without a better light source.

“Okay, blankets, blankets, where’d we put the blankets…” Remus mumbled to himself, glancing around at the stacks of boxes and other seemingly random junk scattered around the basement. “Here, you look down this way, I’ll check over here.”

“Whatever gets me some warm blankets faster.” Dee said, and started looking around towards where Remus was pointing, on the opposite side of some shelves that Remus was checking himself. Looking through the shelves would be a bit harder without Remus shining the light exactly where he was looking, but right across from him wouldn’t be so bad. How hard would it be to find a bunch of stacks of blankets, anyway?

“Hey, uh, Dee?”

“Yeah?” Dee asked, and glanced up from the box of gardening equipment he’d found, only to meet Remus’ eyes from the other side of the shelf.

“I just wanted to say that, uh. I’m really glad you all came back this year.” Remus said, with a rare genuine tone behind his voice that made Dee blink. “Like, I guess...I don’t mean to be a sap, or whatever, but I’m really glad that you came up here so I didn’t have to do this alone. Even though I’m apparently a shit host who forgets stuff like blankets.”

There was a slight smile across Remus’ face as he finished, but Dee still felt a little bit taken aback. It was completely in Remus’ nature to just say whatever he was thinking, yes, but that usually meant hearing random obscene or disturbing thoughts, not something that was actually kind of heartwarming.

“Don’t worry about the blankets, Remus.” Dee said, and his own voice felt uncharacteristically soft, all of a sudden. “We’re here for you. All of us. We’re going to help you and Roman through this, I promise. Would be pretty shit friends if we didn’t.”

“Thanks.” Remus smiled. “I just want this place to have some more good memories, y’know? And to stop only thinking about the bad.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Dee said. This felt...weird, was the best way to describe it. Remus may have been the type to constantly blurt out whatever he was feeling, but being genuine and open had never exactly been Dee’s comfort zone. He averted his eyes, his gaze catching on a slightly old baseball bat. There. Topic changer. “Hey, is this yours?”

Remus seemed to brighten as Dee lifted the baseball bat into view, and he immediately reached through the open shelf to hold it.

“Hell yeah, that’s mine! Oh, man, I’ve shattered so many old lightbulbs with this bad boy.”

“Old lightbulbs?” Dee asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. It was the only thing Mom would let me smash. And some empty bottles, sometimes.” Remus grinned, and casually swung the bat around. “Still could probably crack a few skulls open, do you think?”

“Sure, if that’s what you’re planning on using it for.” Dee said, and turned back to the shelf, only to spot a few half-open boxes a little further past where the bat had been. “Hey, do you think that’s it?”

“Could be.” Remus shrugged, and set the baseball bat back down, leaning it against the shelf. “Only one way to find out.”

Dee headed over to the boxes, and sure enough, they were full of folded sheets and blankets, the exact same ones Dee remembered sleeping under last year. Perfect.

“Alright, found ‘em!” Remus grinned, and pushed past Dee to grab one of the boxes off of the shelf. “Mission accomplished, and it didn’t even take that long.”

“Great. Sooner I can get a nap, the better--” Dee started, but cut himself off as a fairly loud clanging sound came from somewhere deeper in the basement. It hadn’t sounded like some old machinery, like the boiler possibly acting up, either. It sounded more like someone, or something, had knocked something over. “...what the hell was that?”

“It could be a lot of things.” Remus shrugged, and took a few deliberately slow steps toward him. “None of them nice.”

“Oh, shut up.” Dee said, and tried to ignore the shiver that ran down his spine. Remus was just messing with him. It was probably nothing. Either that, or it was his sleep-deprived brain making him jumpier than usual.

“Damn, look at you. You’re really freaked out.” Remus said, and there was that teasing grin across his face. “I thought Virgil was the scaredy-cat.”

Oh, no. This was not happening. No way was Dee letting Remus get a leg up on him when they were barely an hour into the trip. 

~~**Should Dee:** ~~

~~**Protest? or Prank?** ~~   
~~_"I'm not scared.” “Something’s behind you...”_~~

**VOTING CLOSED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you find the totem hints? 
> 
> every once in a while, a chapter will have a totem hint hidden within it! these totem hints might give you clues on upcoming choices, character backstories, or even how to avoid certain deadly consequences. pay attention, because at some point, using a totem hint to your advantage could mean the difference between keeping everyone safe, or losing all of them. good luck!


	12. Haunted: There May Be Something There That Wasn't There Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are too many shadows hiding in the dark.

**YOU CHOSE: PRANK**

Dee wasn’t as good an actor as Roman or Remus, but he’d also gladly stand in front of a moving train before admitting that to either of them. He glanced behind Remus’ shoulder, and froze, staring directly at the completely empty shelf behind him.

“Holy shit.” He said, letting his voice go quiet and his eyes go wide. “Remus. Remus, don’t turn around.”

Remus raised an eyebrow at him. “What?”

“There’s something behind you.” Dee said, and took a shaky step backwards. “It’s too dark, I can’t see what it is, but there’s something there--”

“Yeah, right.” Remus said. He took a casual step backwards. “Oh, no, something’s gonna’ get me--”

“Remus. Seriously.” Dee said, and he wasn’t sure if it was that he was getting better at sounding scared, or if he could pull a pretty convincing look of terror, but Remus’ smile seemed to falter just a little.

“C’mon, you’re totally fucking with me.”

“I’m not, don’t move any closer to it--”

Dee cut himself off with a smug kind of cheer as Remus finally turned around to look, and spotted nothing but the shelves behind him.

“Oh, you _bastard_ \--”

“Gotcha.” Dee grinned, and went to lift the second box of blankets into his arms. “And you thought I was losing my touch.”

“I never said that.” Remus said. “I said that if you quit the drama club, you were gonna’ get rusty.”

“And yet I can still trick you.” Dee said, and Remus stuck his tongue out at him in retaliation. “Don’t even need the stupid drama club.”

“It’s only stupid when Roman gets it in his head that he’s better than everyone else.”

Dee gave him a look.

“Okay, so maybe it’s stupid a lot of the time.” Remus shrugged, and shifted the box in his hands. “All I’m saying is that you got lucky this time.”

“Yeah, sure.” Dee said. “Keep telling yourself --”

Dee cut himself off as yet another loud clang came from somewhere further in the basement, immediately catching his attention. It sounded closer now, which made it even clearer that it wasn’t some kind of machinery, like the boiler. Remus’ expression turned curious, which only served to further drive Dee’s mind towards all the possibilities of what the noise could be.

“Seriously. What is that noise?” Dee asked.

“I’m not really sure.” Remus said, and glanced in the direction the noise had come from. He looked almost worried, and didn’t that just make Dee’s stomach suddenly twist into a knot. Remus wasn’t one to be freaked out by a noise in the basement, he was one to go chasing after it.

“I’m gonna’ go check it out.” Dee said, and set down the box of blankets back on the shelf. He took a few steps forward before Remus’ hand shot out, catching him by the arm to hold him back. “Dude, what?”

“Don’t go over there.” Remus said. “We don’t know what that is, it might just be, I don’t know, a feral rat or something.”

“You think a rat is going to make a noise like that?”

“Look, I don’t know, and that’s the point.”

“Uh-huh. Well, tough guy, you can hold down the fort, while I go look for your feral rat.” Dee said, and gently pried Remus’ grip off his arm. “What’s your deal, anyway? You live for this kind of stuff.”

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to go over there.” Remus said. “Come on, grab the blankets, we’ll just go back upstairs.”

“See, now you’ve got me thinking you’re hiding something.” Dee smirked, and started making his way towards the noise, quickly enough that he was out of Remus’ reach.

“Dee!” Remus called after him, his voice a hushed whisper, but Dee didn’t turn back to look at him. Remus keeping his voice down was a rare occurrence -- he was definitely hiding something.

Dee moved slower after he was out of Remus’ reach, and crept further into the darkness. The dim light bulb hanging by the stairway back up to the dorm really didn’t do enough to light the huge room, but even then, he didn’t remember the basement being quite this dark before. He got an answer for the darkness as he turned the corner to see that one of the light bulbs had popped, leaving a small pile of broken glass on the floor. Huh. Wonder how that happened.

Dee could hear soft shuffling noises the further he got into the basement. Maybe Remus was right. Maybe it was some sort of rat. He wouldn’t be surprised, especially considering how Logan had come across an entire wolverine hiding in the lodge earlier, a rat wouldn’t be so surprising in comparison.

What was surprising, though, was to turn the corner to see a distinctly human figure crouched by a set of shelves.

Dee couldn’t help it, he screamed as he jumped backwards, and it didn’t make him feel any better to hear a matching scream come from the shadowed figure in the room. Dee didn’t waste time, he sprinted back to Remus, who looked just as shaken as Dee felt.

“What? What is it?” Remus asked, and Dee didn’t hesitate to respond. Instead, he grabbed Remus’ wrist and pulled him back towards the staircase, not even caring that Remus nearly dropped his box of blankets in the process.

“Move, dumbass!” Dee yelled as Remus stumbled on the staircase, struggling to keep up with Dee’s pace.

“I’m trying--”

“Guys?”

Dee halted in his tracks as a third voice came from the bottom of the stairs, and it was one that he recognized. He turned around, and there was Patton, looking out of breath and startled.

Oh.

“Patton?” Dee asked, taking a second to catch his breath. He could see Remus already grinning out of the corner of his eye, which sent a pit of dread to his stomach. Oh, God. He wasn’t going to be living this down. “How’d you...what--”

“I was looking for the ouija board.” Patton said. “Logan said it’d be easier to find if we split up, since the place is so big. He’s checking the upstairs closets, I came down here after you guys did.”

Remus’ grin faded, which made the pit of dread in Dee’s stomach lighten up just slightly. Ha. Matchmaker Remus had been foiled.

“You guys split up?”

“I mean, yeah. It’s a big lodge!” Patton shrugged, an easy smile coming over his face. “I would’ve switched places with him if I knew Dee was planning on screaming at me!”

“Okay, I didn’t know who the hell you were.” Dee said. “I thought you were upstairs, I thought some creepy guy had broken in.”

“Excuses, excuses.” Remus said, and lightly shoved Dee’s shoulder. “Go get the other box of blankets, scaredy-snake.”

“I am going to throw you down these stairs.”

“See, that would be an intimidating insult if I hadn’t just found out that you’re scared of Patton.”

“I am not scared of Patton!” Dee insisted, and turned his head when he heard Patton let out a slight giggle. “Oh, don’t you start, you know I’m not scared of you.”

“I don’t know, Dee, that was a pretty loud scream.” Patton said, and Dee shot him a death glare. Traitor.

“You screamed too.”

“Yeah, but everyone knows I’m not exactly brave.” Patton said, and started up the steps towards the two of them. “You’re the scary one.”

“Hey, I thought I was the scary one!” Remus said.

“Difference between creepy and scary, Remus.” Dee shot back, and started back down the stairs to get the box he’d left behind.

“Okay, point made, I’ll take creepy over scary.” Remus said, his voice easily following Dee as he got the box from where he’d left it on the shelf. It wasn’t too far away from the stairs, after all, and Dee hefted it into his arms. Strange, really, how they hadn’t noticed Patton coming downstairs after them. Maybe Remus was more distracting to Dee than he’d considered. Geez, he needed to get that under control.

“So, did you find it?” Remus asked Patton as Dee came back towards the stairway.

“Nope. Nowhere I looked down here, though I wasn’t really looking too long.” Patton shrugged. “Maybe Logan had better luck? I can come back down here and look some more afterwards if he didn’t, but I don’t like being down here by myself, it’s creepy.”

“Probably doesn’t help that there’s a broken light bulb.” Dee pointed out as he reached them. “Watch out for the glass if you come down here again.”

“Oh, damn, it full-on exploded? I just thought it popped.” Remus said, his eyes widening slightly. “Guess I should’ve checked it out better.”

“Wait, you knew there was a light bulb out?” Dee asked, and started up the stairs to the lodge. Remus and Patton followed close behind.

“Yeah, it popped when Logan and I broke in to unlock the front door. Fun stuff, right?” Remus asked, and Dee could hear the grin on his face without having to turn around and look. “Just exploded the second Logan got in.”

“I don’t know if I’d call that fun.” Patton said as Dee pushed open the door back into the lodge, only to spot Logan standing not too far off with a box in his hands.

“I heard screaming.” He said. “Everyone okay?”

“Oh yeah, we’re good.” Remus spoke up before Dee got a chance to. “Dee here just got a little spooked by sweet lil’ Patton over here.”

“It was dark, I couldn’t see who it was.” Dee insisted, which only caused Patton to giggle again as he pushed past Dee and Remus towards Logan.

“Did you find it?”

“Yes, it was in one of the upstairs closets.” Logan said, and held out the box to Patton. Patton took it with a smile, and turned back around to wave it in Remus and Dee’s direction.

“Dee, you gonna’ join in?” He asked. “It’ll be fun!”

“Yeah, that’s going to be a hard pass.” Dee said, and shifted the box of blankets in his arms. “I think I’ve had enough spooking for one night, and really, I wanted to be asleep fifteen minutes ago.”

“Aww, Dee. Never stop being a total killjoy.” Remus grinned, and set down the box of blankets he brought up by the stairs. “Can’t handle a couple of ghosts?”

“Give me two hours to sleep and we’ll see where I’m at on the ghost front.” Dee said dryly, and headed over to the stairs leading to the second floor. Before he headed up, though, he stopped, turning around to look at Logan and Patton. “Forget the ghosts, you two need to watch out for that Remus. He’s a _schemer._ ”

“Okay, get out of here, Sleeping Beauty.” Remus grinned, and Dee rolled his eyes as he climbed up the stairs. Time to get a damn nap. 

**\-- PATTON, 11:00 P.M. --**

**\-- EIGHT HOURS UNTIL DAWN --**

“Okay, so.” Remus started, and rubbed his hands together as he looked over both the board and small sheet of paper that laid out the instructions for how to use it. “Says here, that in order to properly communicate with the spirit realm, you must free your mind from all worldly thought, and give up all your whims and to be bent by the will of the spirit master, which of course, is going to be me--”

“Remus, this is stupid.” Logan said. His arms were crossed over his chest as he sat back in his chair. Patton knew for a fact that Logan would rather be doing anything else, especially since Logan had never been the type to believe in the supernatural. In fact, he’d been the one to tell Patton that fairies weren’t real when they were in second grade (Patton had cried for an hour, and Logan must have apologized over eighty times in the course of that hour).

So, Patton knew Logan thought this whole thing was pointless and immature. And yet, he’d been the one to search for the board in the first place, helped them set it up, hell, he even helped Patton light a couple of candles around that Remus had insisted would be necessary if they wanted to get into the “ghost-talking mood”. It was a little bit strange, for Logan. Patton had to wonder why he was still going along with all of it, but something told him it was for that way that Remus’ eyes kept lighting up.

“And all participants in the circle will remove their garments at my sole discretion.” Remus finished, completely ignoring Logan, but he did break into a mischievous grin when he saw the look of disgust come over Patton’s face.

“It doesn’t say that!” Patton exclaimed.

“Aww, come on, Pattycakes, you wanna’ mess up talking to the ghosts?” Remus asked. “Gotta’ take off your shirt when I tell you to, or it won’t work--”

“Would you be serious for maybe ten seconds in your life?” Logan asked, and maybe it was just the orange glow from the candle light, but Logan looked like he was blushing.

“Oh, I assure you, Lo. I’m _deadly_ serious.” Remus said, and wiggled his fingers at him.

“Alright, then, congratulations, you just gave up the position of _spirit master_ to Patton.” Logan said, and Patton blinked. Him?

“What? Oh come on, man, you trying to be a buzzkill for me?” Remus asked, and slumped back in his chair with a huff.

“I don’t trust you to watch my backpack for five minutes, Remus, I’m not going to trust you to control others’ free will.” Logan deadpanned, and glanced in Patton’s direction. “Patton, on the other hand, gets upset whenever someone kills a fly, so frankly, I’d trust him to not get anyone hurt or violated.”

Patton’s cheeks got warm out of nowhere.

“Not to mention, Patton is the friendliest out of all of us.” Logan continued. “So if ghosts did exist, I’d want to be talking through the one person who could probably make friends with even the most vengeful of spirits.”

“Ugh, fine.” Remus sighed. “I guess that’s fair.”

“Uh, I don’t know.” Patton said, and stared at the little unassuming planchette on the board. “I’ve never really done this before, I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, ghosts aren’t real, so it’s not like you’ll be deeply offending anyone.” Logan shrugged, and Remus stuck his tongue out at him from across the table. “And like I said, you’re the friendliest out of all of us. If anyone knows how to talk to people, it’s you.”

“Yeah, but...living people.” Patton said. “Pretty sure there’s a difference.”

“Oh my god, just do it, or we’ll be sitting here for hours.” Remus said, and stuck out his hand to place his finger on the planchette. “You’re gonna’ bore all the ghosts away with your weird moral compass, Pat, get on with it.”

Logan had a look on his face that reminded Patton a lot of the same face his own mother would have whenever she muttered _Lord, give me strength_ under her breath, and it almost made him laugh. Still, Logan reached out to set his own finger where it was supposed to go.

“Sooner we get this over with, the better.” He said, and turned to look at Patton. “You ready?”

Well. It looked like Patton would be talking to a ghost, then.

“I guess so.” Patton said, and nervously reached out to set his finger down on the planchette. Okay. Okay, this was fine. Logan was right, this was nothing. He could do this. “Uh...is anyone there? Will you talk to us? If you’re there?”

For a moment, there was nothing but complete silence, and no one moved an inch.

And then Patton’s heart leapt into his throat when the planchette started moving.

“Oh, _shit_ , wait a minute.” Remus said, a grin settling over his face.

“Did you do that?” Logan asked, glancing up at Remus, who shrugged his shoulders.

“I didn’t do anything, Mr. Unbeliever.”

“Guys, shh, it’s spelling something!” Patton said. Part of him wanted to look away, terrified of what it meant if Remus really wasn’t just playing a game, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away, his curiosity getting the better of him. His eyes stayed glued to the planchette as it moved around, distinctly landing on four letters.

_H.  
E.  
L.  
P._

Oh, geez, Patton was going to be sick.

“Help?” Patton asked, and his voice was shaking a little.

“Who needs help? Oh, shit, someone needs help, I smell a ghost saving adventure.” Remus grinned, and Logan reached across the table to sock him in the arm. “Ow!”

“Hush up, will you? Let Patton handle it.” Logan said. “You got it, Patton. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”

“Right...right. You’re right.” Patton said, and sucked in a breath. This was fine, this was fine, this wasn’t real. No way. “Okay, uh...how can we help you?”

_W.  
A.  
R.  
N.  
I.  
N.  
G._

“Warning.” Logan repeated, and met Remus’ eyes over the table. “You better not just be doing this to mess with us, I hope you know that--”

“I swear to god, I’m not messing with anything, this is nuts.” Remus said, staring down at the board in awe. “Trust me, I messed with this thing all the time, I’ve never seen it do anything like this. We might have pissed it off, though.”

“What?” Patton asked, and could feel his face drain of color. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, he did not want to make a ghost angry. “Why, what’d I do?”

“Well, technically, you’re supposed to start out by asking who you’re talking to.” Remus shrugged, as if that didn’t make Patton’s stomach sink. “You know, politeness or whatever. It’s supposed to make them mad if you don’t.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?” Patton squeaked, and Remus grinned.

“Maybe it’ll make this weekend more interesting if we get haunted, you don’t know.”

“Don’t listen to him. Just ask who it is.” Logan said, and rolled his eyes.

“Uh, okay...um…” Patton started. “I’m really sorry if you thought I was rude, ghost. Who are we talking to?”

_S.  
I.  
B.  
L.  
I.  
N.  
G._

The way the grin immediately melted off of Remus’ face was enough for Patton to believe that he definitely wasn’t making this up, which only made the chill seep deeper into Patton’s bones. Oh god. Oh _god_.

“Sibling.” Remus repeated. “Whose...whose sibling? Whose sibling is it?”

“Oh, come on. There’s no way this is real--” Logan started.

“Shut up!” Remus shouted, and Logan actually flinched back a little at Remus’ sudden change in tone. Patton didn’t blame him for a second, his own heart felt like it might pop out of his chest. “Ask it whose sibling, Pat, do it--”

“Remus, I mean...you’re the only one here with...I mean…” Patton said, ad he couldn’t even bring himself to finish the sentence. Finishing that sentence, and saying that Remus was the only one at that table with a sibling, meant they were talking to... Patton didn’t even want to think about it.

Remus didn’t even need for him to finish the sentence, though, because he stared back down at the board with a conflicted look of terror in his eyes.

“Okay...okay.” He said, and took a deep breath. “Okay, then...ask it which sibling. Ask it _which_.”

“Patton, ask who it is.” Logan repeated, and while he still sounded almost bored, like he still didn’t believe any of this, Patton could notice his hand shaking just slightly. He kind of suspected it had nothing to do with the ghost, and everything to do with how his best friend was looking at the board.

Which sibling. _Which sibling?_

~~**Should Patton ask for:** ~~

~~**Thomas? or Joan?** ~~

_VOTING CLOSED_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *bdg voice* now...LET'S...get into the fun part


	13. Haunted: Lost Boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Careful what you look for.

**YOU CHOSE: THOMAS**

“...Thomas?” Patton’s voice came out as little more than a shaky, uncertain whisper. “Is that you?”

It couldn’t be true. If it was really a ghost, then it couldn’t be Thomas, because Thomas had to still be alive. The twins’ sweet little brother couldn’t possibly be dead and gone, he was just missing, that was all. Missing, and out there somewhere alive with Joan, trying to get back home. Thomas couldn’t be dead. Not Thomas. He was only _fifteen_ , he hadn’t even gotten a license yet, had his entire life ahead of him--

Patton’s heart lodged in his throat as the planchette started moving again, and landed firmly on _YES_.

“Oh god.” Patton choked out.

“This is messed up.” Logan muttered. “It’s messed up, this cannot be real--”

“Remus?” Patton cut Logan off. Remus was staring at the planchette with a different kind of look behind his eyes, a strangely guarded one. Patton had never seen that look in Remus’ eyes before, and he really couldn’t tell which was more bone chilling at this point -- Remus looking like that, or Thomas being...gone.

“I’m fine.” Remus said, and that was a blatant lie if Patton had ever heard one.

“Are you sure, because we can stop. We can stop right now, I--”

“I want to hear what he says.” Remus cut Patton off, and looked up to meet his eyes. “I want to know what happened to him.”

“Ghosts aren’t real.” Logan said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle. “They just aren’t, Remus, it can’t really be Thomas--”

“Alright, then, you wanna’ explain what’s going on here, Pointdexter?” Remus asked, shooting a harsh glare in Logan’s direction. “Because I’d love to know how else this thing is moving on its own and claiming to be my brother. Really. I’d love to hear any of your theories.”

Logan opened his mouth, only to close it again just a few seconds later.

“That’s what I thought.” Remus said, and looked back at Patton. “Talk to him, Patton. Ask him what happened, _please_. I can handle it.”

“I don’t know if I want to hear this.” Patton murmured. “I don’t want to know how he...how he died, I can’t--”

“ _Please_.” Remus repeated, and when Patton met Remus’ eyes, none of his worry disappeared, but something did change. Remus had a newly pleading look in his eyes, and it brought Patton immediately back to the morning after Thomas and Joan had disappeared. Remus had looked so hopeless, like they might as well have already found the bodies, even though the police had only declared them missing.

He needed the closure. He did, and now Patton could help him get it.

Damn his need to help his friends. Damn it straight to hell.

“Okay...Thomas?” Patton asked, and looked back down at the board. “We miss you, kiddo. We miss you and Joan every day. We want to find you again, can you tell us what happened?”

B.  
E.  
T.  
R.  
A--

“Betrayed.” Logan finished early, and the planchette immediately stopped moving. “Jesus _Christ-_ -”

“Betrayed? What does he mean, betrayed?” Remus asked.

“I don’t like this.” Patton said, and he was starting to feel like he might actually throw up. He didn’t….they hadn’t betrayed them, they had just played a prank that went bad, Thomas couldn’t possibly be blaming them. He couldn’t, right? Thomas wouldn’t. Patton sucked in a breath as the planchette started moving again.

K.  
I.  
L.  
L.  
E.  
D.

Something broke in Patton’s chest.

“No!” Patton yelped, and nearly pulled his hand back from the board out of reflex. “No, no no no, we didn’t get them killed, we _didn’t_ , it was just a stupid prank--”

“Calm down, Patton, you need to keep calm.” Logan said, though Patton knew that Logan only talked that fast when he himself was nervous. “It’s going to be fine, it isn’t real--”

“I’m sorry, I am _so_ sorry, I didn’t think, I should’ve stopped them, I should’ve gone after you!” Patton could feel tears collecting in his eyes, and didn’t care if they spilled over. Thomas was gone, Thomas was dead, it was hitting him like a school bus, he was dead and it was his fault--

“What’s he talking about? Logan, what’s he talking about?” Remus asked, panic creeping into the edge of his voice.

“Patton, please, look at me, you need to breathe.” Logan said, completely ignoring Remus’ question. “Breathe, Patton. Calm down, it will be fine, you just need to breathe.”

Patton took a few shaky breaths, keeping his eyes on Logan for a few seconds. Right. Logan. Logan was good to focus on when Patton was panicking. He was steady. Constant. A reminder of what was real and what wasn’t. He just needed to breathe. In and out, the way Virgil talked about sometimes. In and out, four-seven-eight. Okay.

“There you go.” Logan said. “It’s alright, Pat. It’s okay.”

“It’s not, though.” Remus cut in. “Someone killed him. Someone killed Thomas.”

“Remus--” Logan started.

“No, stop trying to act like this isn’t happening!’ Remus snapped at him, and Logan reared back. “Someone killed my siblings, I want to know who did it. I want to know where they are.”

“And do what with the information?” Logan asked. “Hunt down a killer? You can’t do that, it’s too dangerous. Besides, what would you like to tell the police, that a ghost told us who was to blame? I can guarantee you’ll at least be laughed out of the station, and they’ll probably just assume that you’re off your--”

“I don’t give two shits what they’re going to think of me!” Remus said, and Patton’s chest felt tight in a way that had nothing to do with the ghost. “I already know everyone thinks I’m insane, I don’t need you reminding me--oh, shit.”

Remus cut himself off as the planchette started moving again, completely unprompted.

C.  
A.  
N.  
T.  
T.  
E.  
L.  
L.

“Can’t tell?” Patton spoke aloud, and didn’t wait for Remus to start demanding questions again. “You can’t tell us what happened?”

P.  
R.  
O.  
O.  
F.

“Thomas, you’re not making sense--”

“Maybe it’s saying it needs proof.” Logan guessed. “As in, it doesn’t know what happened for certain, it just needs some evidence to back up what it thinks? Like a hypothesis.”

“Stop calling my brother an ‘it’.”

“I’ve made it pretty clear I don’t think this is Thomas.”

“Guys, shh, it’s moving again--”

L.  
I.  
B,  
R.  
A.  
R.  
Y.

“Library...proof...there’s proof in the library?” Logan asked.

“The library? But we never even go in there--” Patton started, only to immediately scream and pull backwards as the planchette shot across the table out of nowhere and clattered to the floor, completely and utterly lifeless. The candles they’d lit blew out almost in time with the planchette hitting the floor, and that did not help Patton’s nerves one bit.

“Did you do that?” Logan asked, glancing back and forth between Patton and the planchette.

“I swear, I didn’t do anything, it just did it!” Patton said. “Shot off the board like he didn’t want to talk to us anymore, maybe something chased him off--”

“Patton, ghosts are not real, nothing could have chased off something that doesn’t exist--Remus?” Logan started, only to catch himself when Remus suddenly stood up from the table. He was still staring at the board itself, as if the planchette was still there. “Hey--”

“No. No, you’re right, Specs.” Remus said. “You’re never wrong, so...yeah, this isn’t real. It’s not.”

Patton’s stomach was turning again at the uncharacteristically steadiness of Remus’ voice. “Remus--”

“Look, I don’t know if you think that ‘talking to my brother’ or something is going to help me, or whatever, Pat, but this isn’t fucking cool.” Remus said, and met Patton’s eyes. “I don’t need this right now, okay?”

“Hey, don’t blame Patton, he wasn’t--” Logan started.

“Don’t make excuses for him, Lo, I’m done.” Remus said, and pushed back his chair as he headed towards the door.

“I didn’t do this, Remus, I swear--”

“Shut up, Pat, you’re full of shit!” Remus yelled back. He didn’t even turn to look back at Patton before he slammed the door, leaving Patton and Logan alone in the now-dark room. Patton could still see faint smoke drifting from the candles.

They both sat in silence for a moment, staring at the closed door. Remus could be a lot, yes, and he was never afraid to say exactly what was on his mind, but it was rare for him to outwardly snap at one of them like that.

“...if you were faking it, you were doing one hell of a job.” Logan said finally, and it was a miracle that Patton didn’t break down into tears right then.

“I wasn’t faking anything!” He said. “I wouldn’t do that to Remus, you know I wouldn’t!”

“Okay, okay. I believe you, Pat.” Logan said, and while that definitely didn’t lift all of the weird and unsettling emotions that were piling on Patton, it did offer a little bit of relief.

“Should...should I go after him?” Patton asked. “I should go after him, right? Explain things, make sure he’s okay?”

Patton moved towards the door, but Logan grabbed his wrist before he could get very far.

“Bad idea.” He said. “I don’t see Remus like that often. We should let him blow off some steam first. He’ll be alright.”

“Are you sure?”

“The only person who knows Remus better than me is Roman. I’m sure.” Logan said. “Right now, I just want to know if _you’re_ okay.”

Patton could add disappointment onto the pile of emotions as Logan let go of his wrist.

“I don’t think so.” He admitted, and turned to look back at the now-unassuming planchette that lay dormant on the floor. “That was _crazy_. It jumped off the desk like it was possessed.”

“I thought that was the whole point of these things? Tricking you into thinking they’re possessed?”

“I don’t think they’re supposed to do that.” Patton said. “Look, I know you don’t believe in any of this stuff, but...that wasn’t me. And if it wasn’t me, it had to be something.”

“What are you saying?” Logan asked, and raised an eyebrow. “You want to go looking for a ghost?”

Patton gulped, and his hands curled into tight fists to try and steady their shaking. Did he want to do this? No, absolutely not. He’d much rather spend the night laughing with his friends by a fire, listening to dumb fights over playlist choices and seeing how long he could look at Logan before he noticed something.

But he hadn’t been controlling the planchette, which meant something else had to have been. And if it was really Thomas…he’d already failed Thomas once. The guilt of not trying to help him a second time would eat him alive.

“I want to go looking for what killed Thomas.”

**\-- ROMAN, 11:15 P.M. --**

Roman jumped as he heard the sudden scream echo across the mountains, and immediately whipped back around to face the fallen tree. He’d known where Virgil was going with things the second he turned his back and reached towards the ground, and Roman definitely hadn’t been planning on just sitting there and taking a snowball to the face. The fallen tree was plenty of enough cover to shield him from Virgil’s snowball wrath.

Unfortunately, that also meant that he knew exactly what was about to happen when a scream like that rang out and Virgil couldn’t see him.

“ _Roman?!_ ”

Before Roman could even get a word out, he could hear Virgil scrambling to get over the tree, and before he even knew what was happening, Virgil was stumbling on his way to jump off of it. Roman reached out to catch him, words tumbling out of his mouth right as Virgil fell straight into his arms.

“Right here, I’m right here, I’m fine, don’t worry.” He said, and Virgil didn’t even wait to catch his breath before wrapping his arms tightly around Roman. Roman squeezed him back with no hesitation. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

They both stayed put for a few seconds and held tightly onto each other, right until Roman reached up to gently card his fingers through Virgil’s hair. That seemed to be enough to snap him out of it. Virgil yanked backwards, and didn’t waste any time before socking Roman in the arm.

“Ow--!”

“What the _fuck_ was that for?” Virgil asked. “You know I already don’t like being out here. Disappearing and then screaming like you’re being murdered isn’t funny!”

“That wasn’t me!” Roman insisted, and rubbed at his arm where Virgil had punched him. _Ow_. “I wouldn’t just pop out and scare someone like that!”

Virgil fixed him with a look.

“Okay, maybe I would, but I wouldn’t do it to you.” Roman corrected himself. “Especially not after the mine. I was just looking for cover from that snowball, I don’t know what that was.”

“It sounded just like you.” Virgil said, and crossed his arms over his chest. “You really expect me to believe it wasn’t you?”

“It wasn’t.” Roman insisted. “Maybe it was like...an animal, or something, I don’t know.”

“You’re telling me an animal makes the exact same noise you do when you’re scared?”

“Maybe!”

Virgil stared at him for a few seconds, then sighed and started walking past him along the trail.

“Whatever. Let’s just get to this stupid cabin already.”

“Virgil--”

“Nope. Come on, I’m tired and I’m cold and I don’t want to be out here where you can scare me easily.”

Roman opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again. He knew he hadn’t screamed, but honestly, if he was in Virgil’s shoes, he wouldn’t have believed himself either. That scream hadn’t sounded like an animal...but what else could it have been? Everyone else was up at the cabin, and Roman knew that it hadn’t been him or Virgil. The hair on the back of his neck was standing up, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

Still, he followed after Virgil, and turned his thoughts towards ways he could get his boyfriend to either believe him or forgive him, which wasn’t a list he was unfamiliar with. Maybe he’d cool off by the time they got to the cabin. At least, Roman hoped he would. The cabin would be pretty awkward if Virgil stuck with giving him the cold shoulder the whole time, and Roman knew from experience that Virgil could hold grudges for a very, very long time. His cold shoulder record was probably around two weeks. Remy was the same way, no wonder they were friends--

Roman was jolted out of his thoughts when another screech sounded across the mountains, far off in the distance, and Virgil stopped dead in his tracks in front of him. The scream sounded less human than it had a couple minutes before, but it was definitely coming from the same thing, and thankfully, it was too far off for Virgil to think it came from him this time.

“Okay...so maybe it wasn’t you.” Virgil admitted, and took a few steps closer to Roman. “What the hell is it?”

“Maybe, like...a squirrel?” Roman said, and peered through the trees in the direction of the scream. He could feel Virgil’s classic “ _you’re a dumbass_ ” glare on the back of his head.

“A squirrel.”

“Look, there’s a lot of animals in these woods. Squirrel is the first thing I thought of, give me a break.” Roman said, and leaned down to pick up a twig resting by his feet.

“What are you gonna’ do with that?” Virgil asked, and Roman didn’t bother to answer before unceremoniously chucking the twig through the trees. “Roman!”

“What? I wanna’ see if whatever it is will move, and then we can -- shit!”

Roman didn’t think, he just dove into Virgil to knock him out of the way as one of the biggest elk he’d ever seen came crashing through the trees. The two of them crashed back into the snow and narrowly missed getting slammed into. Virgil screeched as he went down, and while that probably did startle the elk further, it seemed to already be in enough of a panic, racing into the woods on the other side of the path.

Virgil was once again clinging tightly to Roman, his fingers curled into his coat. He was shaking, and Roman would’ve found his voice to comfort him if he wasn’t also shaking. _Holy shit._

“...that thing almost killed us.” Virgil spoke first, his breathing barely under control in between his words. “I hate these woods. I hate these woods _so much_.”

“Then let’s get out of them.” Roman said. No arguments on his end. Sure, he’d basically grown up on the mountain, and he’d seen plenty of animals before, but not even he was stupid enough to stick around when crazed giant elk were running around just waiting to accidentally crush someone. He pushed himself back up to his feet, and held out a hand towards Virgil. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

Virgil nodded, and took Roman’s hand. He squeezed it tightly as Roman pulled him to his feet, and Roman squeezed back.

“I’m never going along with one of your plans ever again.” Virgil mumbled under his breath. He didn’t let go of Roman’s hand, and stayed close to him as they started walking again, a little faster than they had been.

“I’d be offended, but yeah. That’s fair.” Roman said, and that actually managed to get a small snort of laughter out of Virgil. It was small, yes, and probably brought on by panic more than anything else, but hey, Roman would take it.

The only thing that was calming his nerves was that they knew what those screams were, now. Apparently, elk could make pretty freaky, human sounding noises when they were panicked, and sure, that was weird and unsettling, but Roman would take it. No other humans were up here screaming bloody murder for any unseen reasons. Roman would definitely take that, no questions asked.

“How much further?” Virgil asked.

“Should be just a few more minutes.” Roman said, and let go of Virgil’s hand for a second. He could feel Virgil tense beside him, and try to reach for his hand again, but instead, Roman wrapped his arm gently but securely around Virgil’s shoulders to keep him closer. Virgil relaxed, but only a small bit.

“...sap.” He muttered, but didn’t pull away, and Roman hadn’t really expected him to.

Their brief moment of almost-calm as they sped-walked along the trail was once again broken by sounds further off in the forest, and both Roman and Virgil tensed at the sound of them. Roman could hear what was definitely that elk again, a couple more strangely human-esq screaming noises, and frantic noises of panic that sounded more like an animal.

“What’s happening?” Virgil asked, and Roman hugged him a bit closer. It was probably getting a little hard for Virgil to walk with Roman holding him like that, but Roman suspected Virgil didn’t mind.

“I don’t know if I want to know.” Roman admitted, and couldn’t help the shudder that ran through him. Virgil reached up to grab Roman’s hand that was around his shoulder, and squeezed it tightly, three times.

Okay. It was probably nothing. Probably just a bear attack.

Roman’s suspicion was confirmed the second they turned a corner into what Roman knew was the last little clearing left on the trail before coming to the cabin. There was the elk again, only now it wasn’t thrashing around or in danger of killing anything. Instead, it was lying helplessly on the ground, partially hidden behind a log, but the log did nothing to hide what looked like deep claw marks that stretched along its neck. It had definitely gotten into a fight with a bear, or something, and it had lost pretty terribly. It was still alive, but barely, and it made a broken sort of noise as it noticed the two of them enter the clearing.

“Oh, my god.” Virgil murmured, and slipped out of Roman’s arms. He approached the elk slowly, and crouched down a bit to try and keep from frightening it. “Poor thing.”

“Must’ve been attacked.” Roman said, and followed Virgil’s lead. “Maybe that’s why it was so panicked. It was just trying to get away.”

“Well, I don’t think escaping is gonna save it anymore.” Virgil said. “God, it looks like hell. I don’t think it’s gonna make it much longer, Ro. It must be so miserable.”

The elk blinked up at Roman with a sad kind of look behind its eyes, and Roman’s chest clenched. Virgil was right, it did look miserable, and with how deep those claw marks looked, it probably wasn’t going to live for much longer. 

~~**Should Roman:** ~~

~~**Comfort it? or Kill it?** ~~

_**VOTING CLOSED** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here is the only blatant warning i will give you: choices are about to start leading to deaths. be prepared. things are about to hit the fan.


	14. Haunted: Caught You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are some things that walls cannot protect.

**YOU CHOSE: COMFORT**

Roman reached towards the elk, as carefully as possible. He seriously doubted that the thing was going anywhere anytime soon, since it hadn’t immediately tried to flee when he and Virgil had entered the clearing, but he didn’t want to startle it any further. The poor thing was already going to die, it might as well get some comfort before it did.

“Hey there, buddy.” Roman murmured, and let his fingers gently brush over a section of the elk’s neck that wasn’t stained with blood. “It’s okay...it’ll be over soon.”

Virgil stayed close by him, and while he practically gave off an air of discomfort, he didn’t seem as tense as he had been before. Instead, when he took Roman’s hand and squeezed it firmly three times, he felt steady. _I’ve got you_.

Roman didn’t want to call it nice, because gently petting a clearly dying elk in the middle of the woods at night with a terrified boyfriend wasn’t exactly what he would call nice, but it was oddly peaceful, in a melancholy sort of way. The elk wasn’t trying to thrash about anymore, and instead lay still, and Roman could almost hope that it would just close its eyes and die as peacefully as it could, given how it was dying.

That hope was immediately shattered as the elk was suddenly yanked back into the dense trees by something Roman couldn’t see, by something that had the strength to move a fully grown elk like it was a ragdoll, and Virgil let out a piercing scream that rattled through Roman’s bones and set his adrenaline running high.

Virgil was already sprinting by the time a yell left Roman’s mouth, and Roman wasn’t too far behind him as they ran out of the clearing and back onto the trail.

“ _Run, go!_ ” He shouted after Virgil, as if Virgil needed him to tell him that. Roman’s legs burned as he caught up with Virgil, and didn’t spare a passing glance to look behind him to check if the bear -- it had to be a bear, what else could it possibly be -- was chasing after them, or if it was satisfied with the elk alone. He couldn’t even remember if it was a good idea to run from bears, or if you were just supposed to stay still and make yourself as little of a threat as possible, but all Roman cared about was getting himself and Virgil the hell out of there, and into some form of safety where the bear couldn’t decide it was any hungrier.

“Oh my god, what the hell was that?” Virgil screamed back to him, his voice cutting sharply through the mostly silent woods. “What the fuck--”

“It’s gotta’ be a bear, _move!_ ” Roman shouted back, nearly stumbling over a few of the snow-covered rocks that littered the path. The cabin had to be here somewhere, he’d knew it wasn’t that far from the clearing, was it further than he remembered--there.

Roman seemed to catch a second wind as he saw the cabin up ahead, the cabin with sturdy walls and a very lockable door, the cabin that meant some air of safety and warmth for the night. He barely noticed the burn in his legs as he sprinted up the steps to the small porch in front of it, but he did notice when he and Virgil’s luck of only stumbling but never falling finally ran out.

Virgil’s foot caught on the uppermost stair leading up to the porch, and he fell with a panicked yelp, just barely managing to throw his arms out and avoid slamming face first into the floor. As much as the idea of running even a little bit towards what had happened instead of away from it made Roman’s stomach turn, he ran back to Virgil’s side, and grabbed his wrist to pull him up.

“Come on, let’s go!”

“I’m moving!” Virgil yelled, and pushed himself back up to his feet. Roman watched as he frantically fumbled around in his jacket pocket for the cabin keys, and handed them over. “Get it open!”

Roman wasted no time fitting the key in the lock and shoving the door open with a zeal that might’ve pulled it off it’s hinges if he wasn’t careful. Once he and Virgil were inside, he slammed it shut behind them, and locked it so fast he felt like he might’ve set a world record. He backed away from the door, as if it was going to burst open at any second, and Virgil was right there next to him, gripping his arm as they both caught their breath.

“...oh my god.” Virgil said, his fingers curling tightly into the sleeve of Roman’s jacket. “That was--”

“Fucking crazy.” Roman finished.

“And way too close.”

“I, uh...I think we ought to stay away from the windows for a bit.” Roman said. There was a window in the door itself, and as he looked out into the woods, he didn’t see anything moving, but that didn’t mean he wanted to take the risk. “Just in case.”

“Yeah.” Virgil said, and his grip loosened just a little bit on Roman’s arm. “Yeah, that’s probably smart. Was it a bear? I didn’t see it.”

“Had to be.” Roman said, and hesitated before finally looking away from the window to look at Virgil instead. He looked relatively okay. Shaken and even paler than usual, but not a scratch on him. “They’re the only things on this mountain that could do that.”

“It seemed so fast, though. Came out of nowhere--”

“Yeah, they’re faster than you’d think.” Roman said. “But, hey, as far as I’m aware, they can’t open cabin doors. We’re safe.”

“Yeah.” Virgil said, though he didn’t seem sure. “Safe.”

“Hey, look at me.” Roman said, and gently lifted Virgil’s chin to meet his eyes. “I’m serious. We’re safe. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you, okay?”

Something flickered behind Virgil’s eyes, something that looked suspiciously like pity, but Roman tried not to think too hard about it.

“I know you won’t.” Virgil said, and leaned up to press a soft kiss to Roman’s lips. When he pulled away again, he seemed a little bit calmer, and a tiny smile was playing over his face. “But this has definitely taken the cake for your worst idea ever.”

Roman let out an offended sort of noise that Virgil actually laughed at, and Virgil started to walk through the living room of the cabin back to the bedroom. “Oh, come on, I’ve definitely had worse than this!”

“None have gone quite this bad, though!” Virgil called back, and disappeared into the bedroom, probably to finally set down his backpack.

Roman’s own bag was weighing heavy on his own shoulders, and his shoulders were protesting where the straps had roughly smacked against them as he’d sprinted through the forest. He slid it off his shoulders, and let it lean up against the wall as he surveyed the cabin.

It was smaller than he remembered, but he didn’t really mind that. He hadn’t stayed in the guest cabin very often growing up, usually instead there would be one of their aunts or uncles staying there whenever the family vacations grew larger than the lodge had space for, which didn’t happen too often, anyway. Still, despite not being used very often, and being much, much smaller than the lodge itself, it was nice in it’s own way. The living room had a simple couch in front of a now-dark fireplace, which had a few tools and a small pile of firewood beside it. A small kitchen was tucked away in the corner across from the door, and Roman knew if he followed Virgil back towards the bedroom he’d find a room barely big enough to fit the queen-sized bed, two end tables, and a simple dresser, as well as the door to the small bathroom. The only thing that took away from the cozy feeling was the shotgun proudly hanging from the door, which made Roman feel unnerved and secure at the same time. Sure, there was something to defend himself in case he needed to, but it being there meant that there was something he needed to defend himself from.

The whole place smelled of pine and a little bit musty, and even though they couldn’t exactly open the windows to air it out a bit, Roman figured that getting a fire going would help. Even if it didn’t, though, it wasn’t too noticeable, and besides, he and Virgil would probably be back up at the lodge by morning.

Roman looked around for some matches, and opened a few drawers in the kitchen before finding a matchbox with a couple still left over inside. He headed over to the fireplace, opened the little iron door that covered the front of it, and carefully slid some fresh firewood inside.

“Oh, son of a bitch!” Virgil’s voice came from the bedroom, and Roman looked up just in time to watch his boyfriend come back into the living room, his eyes darting around the place in a combination of annoyance and thinly-veiled panic.

“What?”

“It’s gone, okay?” Virgil said, coming further into the room, and getting down on his hands and knees to look under the couch. “I just had it in my pocket, and now it’s fucking gone.”

“Woah, Virge, calm down, what’s gone?”

“My phone, genius!” Virgil sighed, apparently finding nothing under the couch but dust bunnies. “Do you see it anywhere?”

Roman made a quick scan over where they entered, but there was nothing on the floor except for some scattered snow that they’d trekked in.

“No, not here. You sure you didn’t just set it down in the other room--”

“No, I must’ve dropped it outside.” Virgil said, glancing towards the windows, and a visible shudder went through him.

“Yeah. I, uh...don’t think we should be going back out there.” Roman said.

“Fuck!” Virgil halfheartedly kicked the couch in frustration, sending a bit of dust flying into the air. “I can’t just lose my phone, my parents will kill me--”

“You can always get a new one?” Roman suggested, but received a piercing glare from his boyfriend.

“Yeah, no. Fun fact, we all don’t have millionaire parents, Sanders.”

Oops.

“Okay, well, hey. We can head out in the morning and look then.” Roman said, shrugging his shoulders. “Even if it’s spent a night out in the snow. I mean, it’s gonna suck, but we can stick it in some rice or something and it’ll probably be fine.”

“I guess.” Virgil muttered, and defeatedly sat down on the couch. He glanced back out the window as Roman turned back towards the fireplace, but it didn’t take too much longer before he could feel Virgil’s eyes on him again. “What are you doing?”

“Building a fire.” Roman said, and grabbed some extra kindling that had been hiding under the firewood. He crumpled them up and added them to the pile before he struck one of the matches. “This place gets kind of cold without one.”

“Is the power on?” Virgil asked.

“Power or not, same difference.” Roman said. “But you can try it if you want. It’s kind of dark in here.”

As he lit the fire and watched it to make sure it caught, he heard Virgil get up, and after a while, heard the sound of a light switch flicking on and off, but no light came from anywhere.

“I repeat. You have terrible ideas.” Virgil said.

“Hey, I got a fire going, that’s not nothing.” Roman said, and looked back at Virgil with an easy smile on his face. “Light and heat. Two birds, one stone.”

“Mhm.” Virgil rolled his eyes and leaned over the back of the couch. “It’s going to take a lot of convincing to make me think this was worth it, Princey.”

“Lucky for me, then. I have all the time in the world to make up for it.” Roman said, his easy smile turning into something more like a smirk.

“Correction, you have until morning.”

“That’s enough time.”

“Really?” Virgil asked, a playful tone seeping into his voice. “By morning you’ll have had enough of me?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Roman said, and moved to sit on the couch. He slung an arm casually over the back of it as he faced Virgil.

“Do I?”

“I think you know by now that I don’t think I could ever get enough of you.”

“Maybe.” Virgil shrugged, and leaned in a bit closer, close enough that he could easily close the gap between them if he wanted to. “But maybe I like making you prove it every time.”

Roman ended up being the one to close the gap. He guessed it should have been a little awkward, since Virgil was leaning over the couch instead of just sitting beside him, but he’d learned a long time ago that kissing Virgil never seemed to feel awkward at all. He reached up as he kissed him, letting his hand gently brush over Virgil’s cheek. His skin was still cold from the winter air outside, and Roman’s fingertips probably still were, too, but Virgil didn’t seem to mind. He let his arms drape over Roman’s shoulders, and didn’t seem to have any intentions of pulling away any time soon, which was just fine with Roman. He was pretty sure kissing Virgil could warm him up better than any fire could, and he was definitely planning on testing that theory.

Roman’s mind always had a tendency to blur whenever he was kissing Virgil. He honestly couldn’t remember most of the first time they’d made out, just that it had started with Virgil pulling him in by his shirt collar, and he’d practically blacked out from the surprise. Kissing Virgil, as cheesy as it sounded in his head, felt like getting high, and that’s why it had felt like he had simply blinked right before the crash came through the window, snapping him out of it.

He wasn’t sure when Virgil had moved to be next to him on the couch, or when exactly their coats had come off, but Virgil was now just in a purple t-shirt and jeans, staring back at where the sound of breaking glass had come from and shattered the moment. Roman could suddenly feel the chill of winter over his bare arms, and it left him with goosebumps.

“What the hell was that?” Virgil asked, his voice a rushed whisper as Roman sat up a bit straighter.

“I’m not...I don’t know.”

“Can you go check?” Virgil asked. He’d pulled his legs close to his chest and was tenser than ever, and Roman couldn’t blame him.

He didn’t really want to go investigate a strange crash while they were in a cabin in the middle of the woods at night, but he, unfortunately, liked playing the hero too much to make Virgil think he wouldn’t. He got up from the couch, and cautiously made his way over to the bedroom door.

The cold air grew colder as he approached, and though nothing seemed amiss in the bedroom itself, he could catch a glimpse of broken glass in the floor of the bathroom, as well as what sounded like soft music playing. He ignored the shudder that ran down his spine as best as he could, and tried to push images from every horror movie he’d ever seen out of his mind as he walked forward, and saw that the small window in the bathroom had been completely shattered. On the floor by his feet was unmistakably Virgil’s phone, still dutifully going through his playlist. What the hell?

“What is it?” Virgil’s voice came from the entrance to the bedroom behind Roman as Roman stooped down to pick up Virgil’s phone. It seemed fine, really. A bit cold and damp from the snow, but not broken in the slightest. Strange, considering it seemed like it had thrown itself through the window.

“It’s, uh...it’s your phone?” Roman said, turning around and holding it up so that Virgil could see. Virgil’s eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

“My phone?” He asked, and walked up to Roman to take it from him. He inspected it, as if he was making sure it really was his phone and not some strange illusion, and then his eyes widened in realization. “Oh, that bastard.”

“What?”

“ _Remus._ ” Virgil said, exasperated. “He probably followed us out here to fuck with us -- I bet he’s behind that goddamn scream from earlier, and the way that elk got dragged away, son of a _bitch_ \--”

“Virgil--” Roman started, but Virgil was already storming out towards the front door, and Roman knew far better to get in his boyfriend’s way when he was mad at someone. Roman followed him out of the bedroom, but strayed in the living room, thinking about it. Would Remus really do that -- well, yes, he would, his twin loved causing chaos in every sense of the word, but still. Roman wasn’t totally sure if he was capable. Yeah, the scream made sense. They had similar voices, and Remus could mimic him really well if he wanted to. Roman just wasn’t completely sure Remus had the strength to pull a fully grown elk away like that, even if it had already been injured--”

“Hey, Remus!” Roman could hear Virgil shouting on the porch out into the open air of the forest, and didn’t seem to care anymore about what heard him. “Yeah, you prick, I know you’re out there! And I also know that you apparently get off to freaking people out, or whatever, but it’s not gonna’ work this time. We’re out here to get some time alone, and really, I don’t care what you want or how you have your fun, but find it somewhere else!”

Virgil came back in, slamming the door firmly shut behind him.

“Fuckin’ jackass.” He muttered, and leaned back against the door. Annoyance was practically radiating off of him, and Roman wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. His brother was an ass, he knew that, and when Virgil was pissed, it was best to keep his distance and let him blow off some steam for a bit.

Even though he knew that, Roman would live to regret not being closer to him.

Roman wasn’t sure if it happened in the blink of an eye or if it felt like it happened over an hour, but he felt frozen to the ground as something else crashed through the window on the front door. Glass shards and wooden splinters went everywhere as something grabbed Virgil with a strength that seemed almost inhuman, and Virgil’s scream froze Roman’s blood in his veins as he struggled against its grip. Whatever had him didn’t seem to notice or care about his struggling, though, and yanked him back through the window into the night, leaving only shattered glass as a hint that his boyfriend had even been there in the first place.

_"Virgil!”_

**\-- LOGAN, 11:14 P.M. --**

Logan watched as Patton got up from the table with a strange mix of apprehension and determination, and pulled his phone out of his pocket to use as a flashlight. He was shivering slightly, and Logan didn’t think it had anything to do with the slight chill that had filled the lodge while it had been empty.

“Do you really think that was Thomas?” Logan asked as he stood up. He still wasn’t so sure himself, but with the way Remus and Patton had both freaked out, he was starting to believe it wasn’t a joke. Still, he did not believe in ghosts, and it was going to take more than one weird experience with an ouija board to change his mind about that.

“I don’t know.” Patton admitted, and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know if I wish he was, or if I wish he wasn’t, either, I just...I want to go see what he wanted us to find in the library.”

“Alright.” Logan said. For once in his life, he wanted to stay as far away from a library as possible, but if Patton was going to go, he was going to follow. Patton was jumpy, especially right now, and the last thing Logan wanted was for Patton to end up hurting himself.

And, well, he could admit that he didn’t really feel like leaving Patton’s side at the moment, either.

The two of them started towards the library. It was on the other side of the lodge, as far as Logan could remember, and they didn’t really make a habit out of visiting it whenever they all came up to the lodge. He’d been in there maybe once in the time he’d known Remus, and while it had definitely fascinated him, Remus had made a point that they went on vacation to get away from studying, not to delve back into it. He was right, of course. Logan knew about keeping a balanced schedule, he just wasn’t the best at enforcing it on himself.

“Remus seemed really freaked out.” Patton murmured, as if he knew Logan’s thoughts were drifting towards Remus. “Are you sure we shouldn’t go after him?”

“Positive.” Logan said, nodding his head. “You’ll just make him blow up. He needs some time to breathe.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have mentioned Thomas and Joan.”

“Well, I mean, that is why we all came up here.” Logan said. “They need closure.”

“Yeah, they need closure. Not a _seance_.” Patton said, and guiltily rubbed at his arm. “This whole trip was a bad idea, we should’ve told them so. We all knew it.”

“We can’t go back now.” Logan said. “We’re here, we need to see it through.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” Patton said, and Logan resisted the sudden urge to hold his hand. Patton might have liked it, and it would have provided some stability for him, but...he might not. And Logan was never one to take unnecessary risks.

As they made their way to the library, a glint of light in his peripheral vision caught Logan’s attention, and he turned his head to see a dim glow coming from one of the vents in the floorboards. He stopped as Patton continued to walk on ahead, and stared at it for a moment.

Odd. He didn’t think the power was on.

“Logan?”

Logan looked up to see Patton standing at the doorway to the library. Fear and concern was written over his face as he caught Logan’s eye. “You coming?”

“Uh, yes. Yes, I’m coming.” Logan said. He walked up to the doorway, pushing the light out of his mind. It was probably nothing. Maybe Remus had left a flashlight on, or something like that.

Logan pushed the door open into the library, and was met with the familiar, musty smell of books that had been left untouched for far too long. As the two of them entered the room, Logan could see a faint layer of dust across the shelves, the deep colors of the book’s covers dulled with gray. There wasn’t much in the library, all things considered. Every wall was covered with shelves, yes, but the room itself wasn’t very big, and had nothing but a couple reading chairs and small tables with a few lamps. It was unassuming, all things considered, but for some reason, that did nothing to relax Logan.

His nerves only got worse as without warning, several of the books came flying off of the shelves to land harshly across the floor, and Patton shrieked, nearly dropping his flashlight.

“You alright?” Logan asked, and was surprised at how calm his voice sounded. Perhaps he was better at holding it together than he’d expected.

“I’m...what is that?” Patton asked, and pointed the light towards the now-empty bookshelf. There, sitting innocently on the wall behind where the books had been, was a single, gray button.

“It’s just a button.” Logan said.

“Should I push it?”

“That is the usual purpose of a button.” Logan shrugged. He’d never been in the room long enough to spot that button before, of course, but now his curiosity was getting to him. It was just a simple library. Unless that was a really odd place to put a different kind of lightswitch, Logan had no idea what it was for, and he always hated not knowing.

Patton’s hand shook as he reached out towards the button, and gingerly pressed it, almost as if he were afraid that pressing the button would trigger an explosion. Instead, he jumped backwards as the wall seemed to creak, and Logan watched in fascination as the bookshelf swung open, revealing a hidden door leading into a dark passageway.

“Oh my gosh.” Patton said, and backed further away from the doorway. “Oh, I don’t like this. I don’t like this. Leave it to the Sanders’ to have creepy hidden hallways in their house, oh my god--”

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Logan said. Unlike Patton, he was inching his way towards the doorway, his curiosity overpowering his own fright. And possibly his own self preservation, but there would be time to think about it later. “I’ll look and see what it is.”

“What? Logan, don’t just walk in.” Patton said, a tinge of horror to his voice. “You don’t know what’s in there--”

“That’s the point.” Logan said. “Here, give me your flashlight. Besides, if you think Thomas wanted us to find something in this library, I think it’s pretty clear that a secret passageway would be pretty high on the list of things to find in here.”

“Okay, just…” Patton said, and handed over his phone. “Just be careful, okay?”

“I’m always careful.” Logan promised, which wasn’t entirely true.

Patton’s flashlight in hand, Logan walked into the small hallway, and as he entered, he realized that it wasn’t much of a hallway at all, but more like a slightly-larger-than-normal closet. There were a few old shelves hanging against the wall that were covered in spiderwebs, and what looked like a basic wooden construction table, but that was far from what caught Logan’s attention first.

What caught his attention first was the collage of hundreds of different photos that were tacked up against the wall. Every single photo had either Thomas or Joan or the both of them somewhere in it, and in every single photo, their faces had been scribbled over in a dark red color that made Logan suddenly nauseous. It had to be red marker, or paint, or something. Words were haphazardly written across the wall in that same red, so messy Logan could barely make them out, but when he did, it did nothing to help the sick feeling in his stomach as he realized it was the same two words, over and over and over again.

_CAUGHT THEM._

“Logan?” Patton’s voice, a hushed whisper, came from the doorway to the little room. “What is it? What’s in there?”

Logan’s voice felt stuck in his throat. He wasn’t sure if he even could speak without tasting bile. _What the hell..._

  
~~**Should Logan be:** **  
****  
****Honest? or Protective?** ****~~  
_~~“Pat, come look at this.” “You don’t want to see this.”~~ _ _  
_

_VOTING CLOSED_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you have no idea how long i've been waiting to write "virgil gets grabbed"


	15. Loyalty: The Chase Is On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catch them if you can.

**YOU CHOSE: HONEST**

“Patton, you, uh…” Logan’s throat felt like it had been filled with sand as he tried to speak. He swallowed thickly, as if that was going to do anything to make the feeling go away. “You should...you should probably see this. I don’t want you to freak out, but--”

It seemed like it was already far too late for that as Patton nervously stepped into the room and caught sight of the collage. He took in a sharp, horrified breath, instinctively stumbled backward, and nearly slammed into the old shelves that were against the opposite wall. Logan just managed to lunge forward to catch his arm to hold him steady, and as his fingers caught Patton’s wrist, he could feel Patton trembling.

“Oh my god.” Patton murmured, and Logan couldn’t help but wonder if he too was feeling a bit choked by the sudden fear. “Oh my god, what is this? What kind of--”

“I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s sick.”

“That’s putting it mildly. God, I think _I’m_ going to be sick--”

“No, nope, please do not--”

“What do you want me to do, then?” Patton said, a touch of hysteria leaking into his voice. “Seriously, Lo, we just found what’s basically an homage to the murder of our friends’ siblings, you want me to just brush it off?”

“That’s not what I meant.” Logan said, and squeezed Patton’s wrist a little tighter. “Don’t look at it. Just...I don’t know, just look at me for a second and breathe. It’s...well, it’s not fine--”

“Of course it’s not fine! We just -- oh my god, do you think Remus knows about this?”

A cold sort of dread settled in Logan’s gut, and as he met Patton’s eyes properly, he saw that same dread reflected in them. No. No, Remus couldn’t know about this. Sure, he spent more time at the lodge over his lifetime than any of the rest of them had, but Logan knew Remus, and even with all that time, he doubted Remus spent much of it in the library, if any at all. Even if he did know about the little room, he couldn’t know about the collage, especially not with how upset he got at the seance. He wouldn’t leave something like this here, no matter how twisted he could sometimes get.

And if it wasn’t him, or any of the other remaining Sanders’, which it certainly wouldn’t be...

“We have to find him.” Logan said, and was already half-dragging Patton out of the little room before he was finished speaking the sentence. “We have to find him _right now_ , and maybe the others, too.”

“You don’t think someone’s up here with us, do you?” Patton asked. His voice shook as he let Logan pull him out of the room and back into the library. “Is that even possible?”

“Give me a second. I have a theory to check.” Logan said.

As they left the library, Logan didn’t waste any time before finding the vent he’d spotted earlier. Sure enough, the dim glow was still seeping out from in between the metal grating, and he crouched to the floor towards it.

“What is that?” Patton asked.

“Something that shouldn’t be on.” Logan muttered, and pulled up the metal grating to see if he could see the source of the light any better. It did make the light shine a tiny bit brighter without the grating to block it, but it didn’t do much to actually illuminate whatever room it was coming from. “I know Remus stormed off, but I highly doubt he would’ve gone to the basement to blow off steam. And not only that, but the lightbulb in the basement blew when we came in. I saw it, it exploded, there shouldn’t be anything that gives off that much light down there.”

“There was a light when I went down there to look for the ouija board.”

“Yes, but I’ll guess it wasn’t that bright.”

“Well no, but...what does that mean?” Patton asked.

“Someone’s down there.” Logan said, and carefully replaced the metal grating. “And it’s not Remus.”

As Logan turned to look back at Patton, Patton had backed away a few inches, his eyes darting around the room as if he expected a stranger to pop out from around any corner. Logan couldn’t blame him, he was starting to feel that way himself, and honestly couldn’t tell if he liked the logical explanation for everything over the ghost idea Patton had in his head ten minutes ago.

“Maybe...maybe Dee’s looking for more blankets.” Patton said. “He’s looking for blankets, and he left his flashlight on. That’s...that’s probably it.”

“Patton, you can’t just ignore what we just saw--”

“Maybe it’s unconnected!” Patton cut him off, his voice higher pitched than usual. “It’s unconnected, and we’re...we’re jumping to conclusions, right? You always hate it when we do that, and don’t look at all the facts or whatever--”

“Patton--”

“Let’s just go find Remus and the others, and figure out what to do about the...bloody pictures, okay? Remus!”

Logan swore under his breath as Patton called out Remus’ name and started to leave the room. They didn’t know what or who was in the lodge any more, and sure, he might have been jumping to conclusions, but he highly doubted that shouting and letting anyone know where they were was the best course of action.

“Remus!”

Logan chased Patton towards the main living room, and just barely managed to catch his hand, slowing him to a stop.

“You can’t go screaming like this, Patton, you don’t know who’s in here--”

“Of course I know who’s in here! It’s Remus, and Janus, and Roman and Virgil, and--”

Patton cut himself off as a pained shout cracked through the otherwise silent lodge, and Logan could feel Patton go rigid in sudden terror. The shout was coming from the set of double doors leading into the dining room, and while Logan couldn’t seem to remember seeing anyone close them, they were now firmly shut.

Firmly might not have been the best word, though, as they started to violently rattle as the two of them looked on, and the rattle was accompanied by a scream that Logan recognized, and a chill ran down his spine as he realized who it was on the other side of the door.

Before he could overcome his brief paralysis at the recognition, Patton broke away from his grip and ran towards the door.

“Remus!”

“Shit, Patton, no--” Logan started, but he still felt partially frozen in place at the sound of his best friend’s scream. He reached out towards Patton, as if that was going to help matters, but instead, he simply watched as Patton twisted the door knob and opened it just a crack. Just enough to see inside.

Just enough for whatever was on the other side to grab him, and yank him through the doorway, slamming the door shut firmly behind him.

Watching it actually happen and Patton’s screech of blind terror was what finally broke the spell holding Logan in place.

“ _Patton!_ ”

He raced towards the door, and while it was completely stupid to try the exact same thing that Patton had just tried and gotten grabbed for, he did it anyway. He grabbed the door knob and turned, but this time, nothing happened. The door was locked. Logan didn’t even know that the dining room doors could lock.

Patton’s frantic screaming was muffled, but still audible, and the sound of it made a twist of emotions rise up in Logan that was only partially familiar, and they only grew stronger as Patton’s cries went suddenly and terrifyingly silent.

Logan ignored the door knob all together, and instead started slamming his shoulder against the door, trying to break through the lock. The initial impact was jarring on his shoulder, but he was running on adrenaline, and the way his shoulder throbbed after slamming into the wood door was something he could worry about later.

To his surprise, the door burst open the third time he slammed into it, and he stumbled as the door gave way and left nothing to support the weight he’d thrown forward. He pitched forward into the dark living room, hitting the stone floor below him with a less-than-heroic crash. He didn’t let it phase him, though, adrenaline still pumping through his veins, and he tried to push himself to his feet as quickly as possible.

The first thing he managed to catch a glimpse of was Patton, unconscious on the floor three feet in front of him. He didn’t look dead, which was a relief, but Logan got all of half a second to enjoy that relief before a complete stranger abruptly entered his vision. The only thing Logan got to see was a flash of a strange clown mask, white with harsh black markings around the eyes and mouth, like it was trying to imitate someone who’d had their eyes clawed out of their face, before a fist connected with his face, and the world went dark. 

**\-- ROMAN, 11:59 P.M. --**

**\-- SEVEN HOURS UNTIL DAWN --**

“Oh, shit, shit, _fuck_ , what the _fuck_ \--”

Roman heart was thundering in his chest, and he had barely started running yet. He threw himself forward towards the cabin door, and only slowed down to hastily grab the shotgun off the wall. He’d never fired a shotgun before in his life, but that was the absolute last thing on his mind as he plunged out of the cabin and into the snow outside after Virgil and whatever had him. Fuck, he didn’t care if he’d never fired a gun before, he was going to tonight if it meant getting rid of whatever the hell just yanked his boyfriend through the window like he was a ragdoll.

“Virgil!” He screamed, his voice echoing across the mountain as he followed the trail that Virgil’s captor had left in the snow. It was an erratic kind of trail, one that told Roman that Virgil was definitely struggling, of course, but the thing that was making the dread in his stomach grow deeper and his adrenaline work faster were the small, random spots in the snow that had turned a vicious crimson. Blood.

There was a carrying strap on the shotgun, and Roman quickly slung it over his back as he tore off into the snow. He kept screaming Virgil’s name, and he no longer cared about the bear they’d seen earlier or any other possible predators lurking in the forest to catch him unawares. All that mattered to him was that Virgil could hear him, that Virgil knew he was coming, that Virgil knew Roman wasn’t going to leave him to die.

The word _die_ shot through Roman’s brain with a staggering sense of clarity. Roman didn’t know how exactly he knew, but he did. If he left Virgil with that thing for long enough, he would be dead. He always expected that a thought like that would make him stumble, would make him freeze in his tracks, paralyzed with the terror of suddenly looking mortality in the face, but instead, it pressed him forward. He’d already lost two people he loved to the mountain, and he was not about to lose a third.

Roman tore through the forest, completely ignoring the small scratches that tree branches were leaving behind in his determined wake. Nothing was about to stop him, absolutely nothing, especially not since he could hear Virgil’s own far off panicked screaming. It sounded like it was getting further away, and that made Roman surge forward even faster, if that was even possible -- until he came screeching to a halt at the bank of a river. It was rushing so quickly that Roman could tell just by looking at it that trying to cross through it would get him swept away an instant, and even then, it was probably so cold that he would freeze to death trying.

Well. That might succeed in stopping him.

But not for long, as Roman heard another piercing shriek in the distance, distinctly Virgil’s voice, calling out his name. No, no, no, he would not let some damn river keep him from being able to save his boyfriend.

His eyes hastily swept over the river, and a few yards away, he spotted some strangely industrial looking pipes that were partially sunken into it. They looked as if they’d been there for years, if the rust had anything to say about it, and there were significant breaks between the pipes where he would have to jump in order to get to the other side. They also looked ridiculously icy, and Roman knew that one slip would likely lead him straight into the deathly waters below, dooming both him and Virgil.

But if he didn’t try at all, he’d be dooming Virgil anyway.

“Fuck it.” He muttered under his breath, and ran towards the pipes. He went as carefully as he could while still maintaining some urgency, which was a terrifying balance to find, but as he set his foot on the first pipe, he was relieved to find that it held steady and didn’t immediately crash further into the river with his extra weight.

He carefully slid across the pipe, and hesitated only a few seconds before he made the first jump. Once he did, though, and his feet landed firmly on the next pipe over, his adrenaline took over once again, and forced him to race across the rest of the pipe. It was like if he did it fast enough, before the ice even had time to make him slip, he’d have a better chance at getting across. Soon enough, he crashed into the other side of the river, stumbling on his landing. He fell face first into the snow, but it only took him a couple seconds to push himself back up to his feet and take off running once again.

He didn’t even register the cold, really. Despite the fact that he was in a muscle shirt, and he could plainly see the goosebumps rising on his bare arms as he ran through the biting winter, the adrenaline and the running was keeping him plenty warm, and he suspected he was at a strange kind of equilibrium -- too cold to sweat, but too worked up to actually feel that same cold.

He barely managed to stop himself from accidentally throwing himself off a cliff. He skidded to a halt once he noticed it, and watched as the powdered snow he kicked up went flying down below him. It wasn’t too far down, not really, and the jagged rocks sticking out made for decent footholds if he needed them, but that wasn’t what he was worried about. Virgil’s trail had disappeared since he hit the river, and Roman doubted that tearing through the woods like a maniac would help Virgil much if Roman had no idea where he was going.

Roman could still hear Virgil’s distant screaming, though, so he crouched down by the cliffside, and took the shotgun off of his shoulder. There was a scope attached to it, and Roman carefully raised the gun to look through it. Maybe he could spot Virgil somewhere, and get a better idea of where to go.

He peered through the scope, his heart slamming in his chest as he saw nothing for a full minute of searching. Soon enough, though, he caught a flash of purple amongst the white snow. There he was. He had cuts along his sides from what Roman could see, and he looked like he’d been dragged through mud, or something, but he was very much alive, and looked like he was frantically trying to crawl away.

Any relief that Roman felt at seeing him quickly disappeared, however, as something seemed to start dragging Virgil backwards again, and Virgil’s screech of panic was clear as it echoed through the mountain. Roman tried to point the scope towards whatever was dragging Virgil away -- maybe he could get a shot on it from here -- but whatever it was, it was blocked by the thick trees in the way.

Roman swore under his breath as he slung the shotgun back over his shoulder, and stared down at the cliffside below him. Only one way to go now.

Roman wasn’t even sure if he was breathing as he swung his legs over the cliffside, looking for the first place to set his foot. Adrenaline wasn’t going to help him here like it did with the pipes -- if he messed up here, he’d likely end up stranded at the bottom with a broken leg, or possibly worse. It didn’t look steep enough to be a fall that would kill him, but hell, Roman couldn’t be sure about that.

He shakily found his first foothold, and started to lower himself down the cliff. Without the adrenaline racing through him, the cold started to bite at his fingertips as he continued down, and his grip felt less and less stable as he went down. It seemed only fitting that he didn’t make it the whole way down before he slipped.

He screamed out whatever curses came to his mouth as he fell. He slid down the cliffside, doing his best to avoid any other rocks that jutted out as he crashed to the ground below, dazed by the impact. He carefully checked over himself. He was bruised, definitely, the dull throbs in random patches across his body told him that much, but it didn’t seem like anything was broken. And if nothing was broken, that was good enough for him.

He could spot what looked like Virgil’s trail continuing ahead of him. It was the same as before, a frantic displacement of snow that was dotted with blood, and the dots seemed to be growing as Roman followed the trail. He pushed himself back up to his feet, prepared to keep following the trail -- when a scream rang out.

“ _Roman!_ ”

Roman halted when he heard the scream. It was Virgil’s voice, no doubt about it, but it didn’t seem to be coming from the same direction as the trail. Instead, it seemed to lead to the left of the trail, where the snow and forest appeared completely untouched. Huh?

“ _Roman! Help, Roman!_ ”

Virgil’s voice screamed out his name again, sounding even more panicked than before, and Roman’s heart clenched. Maybe...maybe the trail had been from earlier, and whatever had him was taking Virgil somewhere else? But the trail was right there, clear as day and it looked like the patches were growing larger. Virgil must be running out of time. Maybe sound was just echoing around the mountain and fooling him.

“ _Roman!_ ”

But that was _Virgil’s_ voice. 

~~**Should Roman:** ~~

~~**Follow the trail? or Follow the voice?** ~~

_VOTING CLOSED_

_BUTTERFLY EFFECT DISCOVERED:_

_Logan Let Patton See the Collage -- Patton’s Mental State is Becoming Unstable_   
  
  



	16. Loyalty: Let The Games Begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One wants vengeance. The other wants an escape.

**YOU CHOSE: FOLLOW THE TRAIL**

Roman shook his head and tore off down the disturbed trail, his feet kicking up snow as he ran. He knew these mountains -- well, not like this, but he did know them. He and Remus had spent way too many summers playing pretend through the forest for him to get confused by sound. These mountains had always had strange echoes. Roman could remember a couple times when he swore Remus had been calling for him, but by the time they found each other again, Remus promised he’d never said a word. It had always been strange, but Roman didn’t have time to dwell on that now.

He knew the forest, sure, but definitely not this part of it.

Falling down the cliff had placed him further down the mountain than he was pretty sure he’d ever been. The rocks and tree trunks that crisscrossed randomly across his path were jagged, and felt wrong somehow, like no one had ever tried to tame them into something that a human could traverse. Roman wasn’t even sure if they could be tamed. He had to dodge a couple of cracks in the ground that quickly turned into harsher crevices, and Roman could catch glimpses of how far they cut down into the earth below him.

He couldn’t hear Virgil at all anymore, and that was making his pulse pound even harder against his chest. Had he chosen wrong? Maybe he should have followed the voice. Sure, the echo thing had been creepy throughout his whole life, but it had always been Remus, and Remus was very good at messing with him--

He skidded as he noticed the sudden cliff up ahead, but this time, he wasn’t quick enough to stop. He still had a bit of luck on his side though, even if it didn’t feel much like it as he slid down what was not a cliff, but rather, a steep incline down the mountain and towards a series of worn down buildings.

“Shit, fuck, dammit, _no_ \--” Roman swore as he blindly grasped for something to stop his fall, and came up with only loose snow brushing against his fingers and blowing back into his face from where he was digging his feet into it to try and slow down. He finally ended up catching hold of a rock that stuck out from the side of the mountain --

Right where the steep incline passed a broken chain link fence and turned into a harsh drop.

Roman hung off the side of the drop, and took a second to look below him. There was a wooden floor a few feet beneath him. Not a bad drop at all, really, but it looked so ancient and rotted that he couldn’t help but wonder if it would hold or just simply shatter under his weight, dooming him to a deathly fall.

But it was either take that risk, or hang there until his fingers gave out and take the risk anyway.

Roman dropped, and while the wood gave a terrifying creak under his sudden weight, it held fast. Roman’s legs shook slightly as he got his balance on solid ground again, and looked around for any sign of Virgil.

Nothing. The trail and the blood splatters were gone, and Roman was left with nothing but old, rundown buildings that looked so ancient Roman was surprised that they weren’t coming down just from him looking at them the wrong way. He’d never been down here, of course. His parents were smart enough to not let him and Remus play in the remains of the mining operation, but he’d always known it was here. It felt strange to be walking through it, like he didn’t belong there. He didn’t belong there, and he was looking for someone who didn’t, either.

“ _Roman_!”

Roman turned so sharply that he was almost surprised he didn’t somehow manage to snap his own neck, and immediately broke back into a run as he caught a flash of purple hair. Virgil’s hair stood out brilliantly against the snow and muted tones of decaying wood, and Roman made a mental note to dye his hair a bright scorching red if they both got out of this alive. Just in case Virgil ever needed to come chasing after him.

“Virgil!” He shouted, and made it outside of the rotten frame of the building he was in just in time to see his boyfriend getting pulled into another building. They locked eyes for a second, and Virgil barely had time to reach desperately towards Roman before the door leading into the building swung shut, putting yet another obstacle between the two of them.

Roman swore, and chased after him. He slammed the door open so hard that it shook on its rusted hinges, and once again, Roman was surprised that it stayed intact. What the hell was holding this place together?

The building he was in now seemed like a more formal entrance into the mines. There were wooden stairs that twisted down further into a dark abyss, and the only sign that they were leading somewhere man-made and real was a white sign with faded letters that read _ELEVATOR_. Roman took the stairs two at a time. Virgil’s screaming was louder now, louder than it had been for the entire chase. Roman was close, he could feel it. He was close, and he was going to get Virgil and go running back to the lodge and tell the others that they all needed to leave immediately.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, the only light was from the few soft beams of moonlight that spilled in from above, but they were still enough to illuminate another white sign hanging above the rocky entrance into the mineshaft.

_UNSAFE. KEEP OUT._

Roman almost wished he could heed that warning, but another shriek from Virgil seemed to pierce through his entire body, and press him on.

If Virgil’s shriek was enough to press Roman forward, though, then it was the second scream that suddenly cut off into haunting silence that set him into a dead sprint down the claustrophobic opening of the mineshaft.

“Virgil? Virgil!” Roman shouted his name as he ran, and the longer he went without a response, the further the cold seemed to seep into his bones. No. No, no, no, Virgil was fine. He was fine, he had to be.

The mineshaft suddenly opened into a much more open cave, and despite not having the walls so tight around him anymore, Roman didn’t feel any more at ease. The elevator to the mine was in the center of the cave, and moonlight glowed from the hole the elevator left in the rock above. Despite the light, Roman still had to squint to make out some of the details in the room. The random ropes and assorted chains hanging from points in the ceiling, the control panel by the door to the elevator --

The completely limp body sprawled out over the floor of the elevator.

“ _Virgil!_ ”

Roman ran towards the elevator shaft and dropped to his knees to get closer to Virgil’s level, the rocks scraping harshly at his skin even through his jeans. Virgil looked like he’d been through hell and back again. There were cuts along his sides that stuck his shirt to his skin and stained it a dark black. The blood stood out even better on his face, though, where several deeper cuts ran across the right side of his face, splattering his pale skin and mixing a deep crimson with the purple of his hair. There were scrapes along his ankles, too, and it felt like everywhere Roman looked, he could only see blood. The only thing that gave him any sort of relief was the slow rise and fall of Virgil’s chest. He looked like hell, and he was unconscious, but he was breathing. He was alive. It was okay.

“Shit, fuck, oh my god, Virgil--” Roman’s hand stilled as he reached towards Virgil, almost afraid to touch him. It all looked so bad, what if Roman made it worse--

Those fears were briefly pushed aside as Virgil stirred, just slightly, and shifted his head towards Roman.

“Roman…?”

“Hey, hey, Virgil. Hey. It’s gonna’ be alright, love.” Roman said. He hoped the frantic desperation wasn’t leaking through his voice. “It’s gonna’ be okay. I’m right here. I’ll protect you, yeah? I’m always here to protect you.”

“...help me.” Virgil’s voice was barely a whisper, and it sounded hoarse from the screaming.

“I will, Virge, you know I will. Gonna’ get you out of here, we’ll get back to the lodge and go home where we can fix you up, okay?”

Roman reached forward to lay a gentle hand on his shoulder, but before his fingers could even brush over Virgil’s skin, a loud and sinister sort of creak sounded from above. The elevator jolted, and every one of Roman’s instincts screamed for him to jolt backwards. He fell back onto the solid ground, and just barely caught a glimpse as the chain holding up the elevator platform snapped. The platform disappeared from sight, with Virgil along with it, in an ugly crash of old, rusted metal falling down from the ceiling above.

Roman screamed louder than he’d ever screamed before, and it burned his throat and brought tears glistening to the corners of his eyes. He didn’t care about the splinters in his hand as he threw himself against one of the wooden supports of the elevator shaft, holding himself up as he stared down into the abyss that his boyfriend had disappeared into. It was too far down to see, too far down to jump after him.

Too far down to survive.

Roman screamed down the elevator shaft anyway, as if that was going to do much. It didn’t feel like there was much else he could do. He thought he’d known what it felt to be numb after losing Joan and Thomas, but this was different. This, he was right there. This, he saw it happen in front of him.

He felt like he was going to be sick.

A shadow snapped him out of it. There was a new shadow, moving along the wall of the mineshaft, blocking some of the moonlight from above. He looked up, and within the glow of the moonlight, he spotted something that looked suspiciously like a human head peeking out into the mineshaft, higher up above.

Roman’s insides twisted, and the numbness in his chest was immediately replaced by rage. The chains had snapped. They’d held hundreds of pounds of mineshaft equipment for years, and now, they chose to snap. That couldn’t have been a coincidence. Whoever that was, watching him from above, had cut the chains.

Whoever that was had killed Virgil.

There was a set of metal ramps leading upwards beside the elevator shaft that seemed like they had been placed there for maintenance. Roman had forgotten about the gun the moment he saw Virgil, but now, he pulled it off his shoulder as he raced up the ramp towards where the shadow had been. Whoever this was killed his boyfriend, and Roman was going to make sure he didn’t get away with it. Roman wanted to shoot the guy between the eyes as many times as it took to make him unrecognizable, but maybe first, he’d shoot him in the leg. Knock him down. Fire a few shots where it would hurt, but it wouldn’t kill him. He wouldn’t grant Virgil’s murderer a slow death. They certainly hadn’t granted Virgil the same kindness.

The ramp cut off about halfway up, breaking off into useless, rusted, twisting pieces of broken metal. Roman looked up again to see if he could spot the shadow of Virgil’s killer, and while he couldn’t see anything, he heard a creak of metal from above, and the sound of something hitting the ground -- but that wasn’t possible. The ground was below him.

Roman swore under his breath, and slung the gun back over his back. There was only one way up past this, and luckily, the elevator shaft was made of grating. There were places to grab hold and pull himself up, and plenty of footholds to spare.

He started to scale the elevator shaft. The metal was frozen under his fingers, and despite how easy it was to find hand and footholds, it felt fragile under his weight. He reached toward the side, where a more solid piece of metal stuck out from the wall of grating -- a support beam. As he reached it and pulled himself higher, he spotted it out of the corner of his eye.

A tunnel, connecting to a point in the elevator shaft much higher than the one Roman had come from.

Roman narrowed his eyes, and grunted as he started climbing with a stronger purpose, a stronger goal. That explained hearing someone hit the ground. The person who had killed Virgil must have been trying to escape through another tunnel. Maybe they knew the mountain even better than he did.

A piece of flat metal that covered part of the grating above suddenly came loose, and Roman just barely managed to press himself flat against the wall to avoid it. He could feel the metal digging into his fingers as he fought to stifle the panic that had jolted through him. One final piece of metal to fall alongside the chains. He couldn’t help but wonder how fragile the system really was. Sure, he didn’t think the chains would just randomly snap, but after they had snapped, so much metal had rained down with them that Roman didn’t want to think about how far the chain reaction went.

He forced himself to keep going up, and forced himself to ignore the way the metal groaned as he went, like it was threatening to topple over and send him to the same fate he’d just witnessed. It felt like forever when he finally got high enough to drop onto the floor of the tunnel, but it couldn’t have been that long, because the second he dropped down, he spotted them.

A person was walking down the tunnel far ahead of him. Roman couldn’t see much in the dim light, but they appeared to be shorter than him, and thinner, too, even though that was harder to tell through the winter coat. They walked briskly down the hall, but didn’t really seem to be in any actual hurry.

That was just fine by Roman as he pulled the shotgun back off of his shoulder. He raised it in the same way he’d seen in a couple of movies, and peered through the scope, trying to get a better view of the person. It was way harder to get the person in his crosshair in the dark than he expected, but that didn’t stop him from taking the shot anyway.

It rang out through the silence of the mineshaft, and although Roman saw the figure up ahead jolt, he definitely didn’t see them fall. Instead, he got to watch as they bolted, disappearing further down the tunnel.

“Fuck!” Roman muttered to himself. So much for the element of surprise. If he even had it in the first place, that was.

He didn’t have time to think about that now, though, and instead, sprinted down the tunnel after the person. One failed shot wasn’t going to stop him, no way in hell. Anger was still coursing through his veins and fueling him. The image of Virgil’s scarred face was burned deeply into the forefront of Roman’s mind, and he doubted he would ever forget it. No. He wasn’t going to let one shot get in the way of giving this person some sort of comeuppance for killing his boyfriend.

The tunnel stretched on for a short while, and as Roman ran, the cold wind and snow began to blow in from the exit he was running towards. The tunnel led to a small patch of flat land outside that turned into a slow decline that wasn’t nearly as steep as the ones he’d already conquered that night. The person was nowhere to be seen, but for a brief second, that wasn’t what was on his mind.

What had caught his attention instead was the trail of footprints that were rapidly filling back up with snow, and how they were leading down the hill straight towards the old sanitorium.

Fantastic. 

**\-- LOGAN, 12:41 A.M. --**

Logan’s vision swam as he finally regained consciousness.

He was face down on the cold floor. His glasses were crooked on his face, and he was honestly surprised they hadn’t cracked in the fall. As the room stopped spinning quite so violently, two things immediately came into focus. One, there was a flashlight lying on the ground in front of him that had been left on, and it definitely hadn’t been there when he entered the room.

And two, Patton was gone.

Logan did his best to push himself back up to his feet. He gripped a nearby chair for some support, and straightened his glasses as he managed to keep his balance. The room was getting steadier by the second, which was nice, but the nauseous feeling in Logan’s stomach didn’t feel like it would be disappearing any time soon.

“Patton?”

His voice echoed through the empty room, and only silence responded. Logan’s heart beat picked up, and he carefully let go of the chair to head towards the doorway out. He stooped to pick up the flashlight as he went, and not ten seconds after he did, the beam landed directly on a splash of dark red blood across the floor.

Logan’s heart immediately leapt into his throat.

He wanted to yell for Patton again, but he’d already been met with silence once. Maybe he could shout for Remus, but if he hadn’t spoken up the first time, then he wasn’t here, either. Not to mention, the idea that someone else was on the mountain with them was becoming less of an idea and much more of a reality, and the last thing Logan needed was to alert anyone of where he was.

He continued in the direction of the blood splatter. Whether it was Patton’s or Remus’ blood didn’t really matter, someone was bleeding and leading Logan right to them. Chances are, the one bleeding would need the help, anyway, and the sooner he found at least one of them, the sooner he could find the other, and then round up everyone else and get the hell off of the mountain.

The blood trail led him towards the other set of double doors leading out of the other side of the dining room, and Logan walked briskly towards them. His headache was feeling better by the second, which was definitely a plus, as he got the sickening feeling he was going to need to be thinking straight and being able to stand upright on his own in a couple minutes. The nausea still hadn’t left him, and at this point, he doubted it would until they were back at the foot of the mountain.

He wasn’t wrong about that. The pit in his stomach felt harsher as he opened one of the doors, only to be greeted by another, larger splash of blood across the wall. It looked almost like someone’s head had been slammed against the wall, with the way the blood streaked upwards.

“Fuck.” Logan muttered under his breath. A chill had run through him, and it only took him a matter of seconds to realize that it wasn’t completely because of the blood.

He turned his head to look down the hall, and spotted a door hanging open, swaying gently in the chill wind that it was letting into the lodge. Logan sure didn’t remember anyone coming back here since they’d gotten there, and he doubted anyone there would have left the side door hanging wide open even if they had gone for a stroll.

Logan didn’t hesitate any further before heading outside, and descending the snow-covered wooden steps. Out here, in the cold and the wind, he risked another yell.

“Patton? Remus?”

There was no response aside from the wind whistling around him.

He could see the vague outline of a trail of footprints. They’d been there a while, and snow had mostly covered them, but there was still just enough of a difference between them and the untouched snow that Logan could make it out. The footprints were being followed by an irregular trail behind them that seemed to smooth a couple of them over, and Logan’s stomach clenched. If he was looking at it right, it almost seemed like a trail someone would make if they were dragging something -- or someone -- behind them.

Logan didn’t care if he screwed up the footprints as he followed them. They led him away from the lodge, down a smaller, less noticeable path into the forest, and Logan couldn’t help but tense as he realized exactly where the footsteps were leading him. The barn.

It was an old building, just like everything else on the mountain, and it definitely hadn’t been refurbished with the same care that the lodge had been. It probably hadn’t been refurbished at all, really, as it didn’t have much of a use for the Sanders family. Logan wasn’t even sure if it had been used as a barn, that’s just what Roman and Remus had always called it when they were kids. It was rundown, practically rotting from the inside out, but the twins loved the place. Remus had told him that they used it as their “ancient castle” when they were kids, and even though there wasn’t supposed to be anything interesting in there aside from some old tables and rusty chains, Logan seriously doubted it would be the same way tonight.

Sure enough, as he approached the barn, he could hear what sounded like faint sobbing coming from inside. He quickened his pace, and by the time he was close enough to count the hairline cracks in the windows, he could hear it much clearer.

Patton.

“Patton?” Logan called out, and cringed. His voice felt too loud, like it was an interruption. Like it didn’t belong here.

The sound of Patton’s breath catching interrupted his crying as Logan entered the barn, and Logan felt a wave of relief as he heard Patton’s voice properly.

“...Logan? Is that you?”

“It’s me, Patton, it’s me. I’m here.” Logan said. He still couldn’t see where Patton was, but he was definitely in here somewhere, and with how terrified he sounded, Logan couldn’t help but want to give him at least some comfort. “I’m right here, where are you?”

“I can’t...I can’t move.” Patton’s voice spoke from the darkness of the barn, and he choked on another sob. “He tied me up, I can’t--”

“Tied you up? Patton, what happened?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, everything went black, and I woke up in here--”

Logan’s flashlight didn’t feel very helpful as he carefully made his way through the barn. He could see maybe two feet in front of him, and all that gave him were a couple of tables to avoid and broken glass that littered the ground. He did his best to follow Patton’s voice.

“And oh my god, Logan, please, you have to get us out of here before he comes back!”

“Us?” Logan asked, and he didn’t get a chance to hear the answer to that question.

He’d made it to a wall made of metal grating that seemed to separate the small workshop room he was in from the rest of the barn, and right as he did, a light turned on above, followed up by a crash that made Logan instinctively jump backward.

He could see them now. On the other side of the wall were Patton and Remus, tied up so that they were hanging against a back wall. Remus was still completely unconscious, and Patton’s cheeks were glistening with tears. He was staying still in his restraints, and Logan couldn’t help but wonder if he’d been trying to struggle and had just given up.

In front of the two of them, completely still on a track, was a huge buzzsaw, right at the height of both of their waists.

Holy _shit._

“Logan? Logan, please, _please,_ help me--” Patton begged, his eyes catching Logan’s through the grating. Logan opened his mouth to respond, to say something, to let him know he would get him down from there --

_“Hello, and thank you all for joining me tonight.”_

A distorted voice played from somewhere above them, and Patton yelped at the sudden noise. The sudden noise seemed to shock Logan out of the frozen state he’d found himself in for the second time that night, and he immediately went for the door in the metal wall.

“Oh my god, Remus, Remus, wake up--” Patton cried, and Logan tried turning the handle of the door. It didn’t budge. Not an inch.

“ _We’re going to be conducting a simple experiment here--_ ”

“...huh? Hey, what...what’s going on? Patton?” Remus’ voice sounded groggy as he woke up, but that grogginess was quickly replaced with panic. “Patton, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know--”

Logan slammed his shoulder into the door, but unlike the dining room, this doors didn’t give in.

“ _And for this experiment, we’ll need the help of our two test subjects: Mr. Remus Sanders, and Mr. Patton Ardal._ ”

“What?” Patton’s voice somehow sounded small and far too loud at the same time, like it was piercing straight through Logan.

“Oh my _god._ ” Remus said, a sort of horrified realization coming into his voice.

Logan gave up on the door. It wasn’t budging, and he seriously doubted that just uselessly slamming against it was going to do much of anything. He paced a little, back in froth in front of the grating, and he kept his eyes on Patton and Remus. He was almost afraid they’d disappear if he didn’t.

_“_ _But we’re also going to need one more brave participant to decide: which of our subjects will live, and which will die?”_

Logan’s stomach dropped, and neither Patton or Remus fared any better.

“No, no, no, no, oh my god, Logan, please, get us out of here--!” Patton was crying harder now, his sobs cutting through most of his words.   
“No fucking way, no, you can’t do this, let me down from here, you maniac!” Remus’ voice echoed as he screamed at the disembodied voice, struggling harshly against his restraints.

“ _Please, everyone, please calm down_ .” The voice said, as if it were expecting the reaction. “ _It’s all very simple. Mr. Logan Hall, in front of you, you will find a lever._ ”

Logan’s hands were shaking, and he barely had time to question how the voice knew his name as he looked down and spotted the lever. It was old and rusted like everything else in the building, but what definitely wasn’t old were the two pictures on either side. On the left was a photo of Patton, and on the right, Remus.

“ _All you need to do is choose who you will save._ ”

The buzzsaw suddenly came alive in front of him, and Logan realized with dawning horror that both Patton and Remus had minecart tracks leading to the bottom of their feet. Just as he realized that, the buzzsaw started to slowly inch it’s way towards the two of them, and Patton seemed to come to the same realization half a second later, as he started screeching bloody murder.

“No, no, NO! This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening--”

“Shit, fuck, no, no, no -- okay...okay, it’s gonna’ be okay, this is going to be okay.”

Remus’s voice was starting to sound almost hysterical, but that was the least of Logan’s worried. It felt like his mind had gotten twisted up with terror, and it was only as he listened closely that he realized he was quietly muttering under his breath.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god--”

“L...Logan. Buddy. Dude, look at me.” Remus said, and Logan looked up to meet his eyes. “Let’s just...let’s just think about this for a minute. I know...I know we haven’t exactly been close, lately, but you’re not just gonna’...please, don’t do this--”

“Oh my god, Logan, you can’t let me die!” Patton cried out.

Both of them talking to him at the same time was only adding to the jumble of panicked thoughts bouncing around in Logan’s head, too quickly to actually have any sort of coherence.

“Just….just, uh, give me a second, I can’t… I can’t think straight, I…” Logan mumbled, and he wasn’t even sure if Patton or Remus could hear him. Instead, he stared at the lever in front of him, almost afraid to touch it.

But he couldn’t put it off forever. 

~~**Should Logan:** ~~

~~**Save Patton? or Save Remus?** ~~

_VOTING CLOSED_

_BUTTERFLY EFFECT DISCOVERED:_

_Roman Followed the Trail -- Virgil Falls Down the Elevator Shaft_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they will remember this.


	17. Dread: Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And then, there were six.

**YOU CHOSE: SAVE PATTON**

Patton’s cries reverberated through Logan’s head so loudly that his throat was closing up at just the thought of pulling that lever towards Patton’s picture. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t sentence Patton to a death like that, he couldn’t sentence Patton to a death at all.

“Come on, L, please, don’t do this!” Remus shouted above Patton, and lodged another ugly stake right in Logan’s heart. Saving Patton meant subjecting Remus to the buzzsaw, and Logan couldn’t do that either, not to his best friend.

But Patton’s sobs were still there, mixed in with the whirring of the buzzsaw, and Logan couldn’t ignore them.

He didn’t look up. It made him a coward, probably, to send Remus to his death and not even being able to look him in the eyes, but he couldn’t look at him. He could already imagine the look of betrayal behind Remus’ eyes without needing to actually see it at all, and even just in his imagination, it was haunting. At least if he kept it in the imaginary, he could pretend like it never existed.

Logan closed a hand around the rusty lever. His hands were sweating even around the freezing cold metal. He didn’t say a word -- what could he say? Apologize? Explain himself? Reassure Patton even when nothing was going to be okay at all?

He sucked in a sharp breath, and before he lost his nerve, he yanked the lever to face Patton’s picture.

_“I see. You have chosen to save...Patton.”_

Remus screamed, and though every bone in Logan’s body was screaming right alongside him to keep his eyes on the lever, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He looked up, and his eyes met that same haunting look he’d pictured ten seconds prior.

“WHAT DID I DO?” Remus screamed, his eyes locked onto Logan’s. “I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS, WHAT DID I DO?”

Patton was repeating something over and over again beside Logan, but he was being drowned out by the buzzsaw and Remus’ voice. Logan couldn’t bring himself to look away from Remus, as much as he wanted to. He didn’t want to watch this happen, not in the slightest. At the very least, he could look over at Patton and make sure he was looking away, that he didn’t have to see this, but he felt paralyzed.

He suddenly completely understood the phrase “like watching a trainwreck”.

The image of the buzzsaw cutting into Remus felt like it was burned into Logan’s brain, and his screams of agony were going to become the soundtrack to Logan’s nightmares, he could already tell. It felt like it lasted for years as the buzzsaw scraped its way through skin, veins, and muscle to separate Remus’ torso from his legs, and painted the area around him a deep, grotesque red. Logan almost felt grateful that Remus’ screams abruptly halted before the buzzsaw had even gotten halfway through him, and his head lolled forward. He wasn’t quite dead yet, just blacked out from the pain, but he would bleed out in mere seconds. The buzzsaw kept spinning for a few seconds after Remus had been cut the entire way through, and it felt almost like a sick joke. Like Remus alone hadn’t been enough for the blade to be satisfied.

The buzzsaw finally halted, though, and Logan’s paralysis left him all at once. He nearly fell over as his legs suddenly turned to jello beneath him, and he had to physically bite his tongue to keep from screaming.

God, he wanted to scream. He wanted to break down, to fall apart right then and there and let whatever maniac had forced this sick game upon them to come around and kill him, too. Get it over with. Make it quick. He’d killed his best friend, he couldn’t live with this, he --

But Patton was still crying, and his cries sounded raw and panicked and completely out of control. Patton. Just thinking about his name alone forced a numbness through Logan, a need to block out the screeching panic attack that loomed just on the horizon.

He finally looked from Remus’ mangled body to Patton’s. He had his head turned away from Remus, thank god, but his entire left side was coated in Remus’ blood. It splashed across his pale skin and soft blue clothes like it was trying to take him over.

“No, no, no, Patton, don’t...don’t look.” Logan’s own voice felt raw as he saw Patton start to turn his head towards the grisly sight that used to be Remus. “Don’t look, don’t--”

“No, no, this isn’t happening, this can’t be real!” Patton cried, and weakly struggled against his bonds again. “He’s okay, right? He’s fine! It’s just...it’s just a joke!”

Hysteria was creeping into the edges of Patton’s voice, and it only strengthened the numb feeling that was surging through Logan. Patton needed him. He couldn’t afford to break down right alongside Patton, Patton _needed_ him.

Just at that moment, the metal door leading to the rest of the barn swung open, and Logan didn’t even care if it was an obvious trap or not. He immediately ran to Patton, and reached up to untie his hands.

“ _Logan_ \--”

“I know. I know, look at me, okay? Not at anything else. Just at me.” Logan said. His fingers were shaking as he tried to untie the blood-splattered rope. “I’m getting you down from here, Patton, we’re going to get you out. It’ll be okay.”

It wouldn’t. It wouldn’t be okay at all, and Logan nearly choked on the lie.

He finally managed to undo the rope, and Patton fell forward right into Logan’s arms. Logan didn’t hesitate for a second before squeezing Patton in a tight, secure hug, and Patton’s cries became muffled as he buried his face in Logan’s coat. His whole body was shaking, and he clung to Logan like his life depended on it, mumbling words between his sobs that Logan couldn’t quite make out.

“We have to go now, okay? We have to get out.” Logan said, and started pulling Patton towards the metal door. They had to get out now, before that maniac showed up again. Even if Logan could still feel bile rising dangerously in his throat and he wanted nothing more than to collapse. “Come on, Pat, we have to go--”

He felt Patton’s head turning before he could stop it.

“NO!” Patton’s scream echoed through the barn as he finally caught sight of Remus’ body, and he pulled against Logan’s arms in Remus’s direction. Logan just barely managed to hold him steady even as he struggled against his grip. “No, no, no, let me _go_ , we have to save him, we can’t just leave him--!”

“We can’t, Pat, we have to get out of here, come on!” Logan pulled him towards the door as best as he could. “It’s hopeless, he’s already--”

Logan couldn’t bring himself to say it, but Patton seemed to be able to fill in the blank just fine. He screamed and pulled against Logan for a few more seconds, but even hysteria couldn’t keep out reality for long. He went almost limp in Logan’s arms, and weakly followed along as Logan led him out of the barn.

The next few minutes of leading Patton out of the barn and back towards the lodge felt like a blur of frozen winter air, the sound of Patton’s weak cries, and barely being able to see the path through the darkness. Logan was running almost purely on adrenaline, numb to the rest of the world except for Patton. He had to get Patton back to the lodge. There, they could find the others and get out before anyone else got hurt, and he had to keep Patton safe and alive and--

“Logan? Patton!”

A familiar voice cut through Logan’s thoughts, and he looked up to see Emile and Remy racing up to the two of them. Remy was carrying a small black bag in his hand, and Logan’s brain vaguely remembered why they were outside in the first place, but that wasn’t nearly what he was focused on.

“Oh my god, is that blood?” Remy asked, horror quickly entering his voice. “Whose blood is that? Patton? What happened?”

“Are you okay?” Emile asked.

Someone else was here. Someone else who wasn’t breaking down. He could let go, if he needed to.

The dam broke. Patton collapsed to the ground next to Logan, and Logan just barely managed to stay on his own two feet.

“There was...there was a maniac, and a buzzsaw, and Remus--” The words bubbled out of Logan like they were all trying to escape at once, and he was tripping over his words even as he choked on some of them. “And blood, there was so much, cut him right in half--”

“What? Holy shit, L, you gotta’ slow down.” Remy said, and out of Logan’s peripheral vision, he could see Emile kneeling on the ground to get at Patton’s level. Maybe he was doing his best to calm him down. “Who got cut in half?”

“Remus! Remus, Remus, he’s dead, he’s gone, it’s all my fault--” Logan felt like he couldn’t slow down, no matter what Remy was saying. “Cut right in half! A maniac, there’s a maniac--”

“Shit. Shit, shit, _fuck_ , Em?” Remy looked down at Emile, and Logan could hear the panic entering his voice. “Em, we…you’re hearing this, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m...I’m hearing it.” Emile asked, and he sounded calmer, but it felt almost like a practiced calm. Like there was a panic bubbling right underneath the surface. “I don’t understand, a maniac?”

“He tied us up, I couldn’t....” Patton managed to get words out in between sobs. “Lined up a buzzsaw, made Logan choose, I...he died, he’s dead, oh my _god_ \--”

“Spilled out _everywhere_.” Logan said, and started pacing just slightly back and forth. He needed to move, needed to do something. “I couldn’t...it was right in front of us, there was so much blood--”

“Oh my god, this is insane.” Remy cut him off, probably before he could go into any more gruesome detail. Logan didn’t blame him, but it felt like the image of the buzzsaw going through Remus was trapped in his brain, and he needed to get it out before it got stuck there permanently. “This is nuts, we...we have to get out of here.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know…” Logan mumbled.

“Yeah. Yeah, Remy’s right. We need to go before anything else happens.” Emile said, and was carefully helping Patton back up to his feet. “You two should go back in the lodge and find the others. We need to stick as closely together as possible.”

“Em and I can head down to the cable car station and call the car early.” Remy said. “We can call it and then come back to the lodge to get the rest of you so it’s ready when we get back down there. Logan? You hearing me?”

He was. Going back to the lodge and rounding up Roman, Virgil and Dee sounded like a good idea. Emile was right, sticking together and keeping track of where everyone was sounded like the best way to keep everyone from getting hurt, and if Remy and Emile went to call the cable car, they could get off the mountain the second the rest of them got to the station. It was smart. It was a plan. And that gave him something to actually focus on.

The hysteria ebbed away from his brain just slightly, enough to let him take in a deep breath and nod.

“Yes, I’m hearing you.”

“Good. We’ll go down to the cable car station, okay? You go find Dee and Roman and Virgil. Stay at the lodge, Emile and I will come get you once we’ve called the car.”

“Alright. Yeah. That’s a plan. It’s a plan.” Logan said.

“Are you going to be alright to do this?” Emile asked, glancing between him and Patton, who had gone back to clinging to Logan’s arm. Patton wasn’t as desperate as he had been seconds before, but his breathing was still shallow, and Logan could feel his hand shaking as he gripped Logan’s arm.

“We’ll be...fine.” Logan said. “We can do it. We’ll be at the lodge.”

“Okay. Find a good place to hole up, just for a few minutes. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

Logan nodded, and carefully started to lead Patton back towards the lodge, leaving Remy and Emile behind in the snow.

“...Logan?”

Patton’s voice was smaller than Logan had ever heard it, and he moved to grab Patton’s hand, squeezing it tightly.

They were going to get out of there. It was going to be okay. It had to be. 

**\-- ROMAN, 1:03 A. M. --**

**\-- SIX HOURS UNTIL DAWN --**

The stone wall that surrounded the sanatorium had surprisingly held up well over time, and was freezing cold under Roman’s hands as he held onto it. He peered into the vast lawn in front of the sanatorium, and while it was overgrown and probably teeming with all sorts of things Roman didn’t want to see, that wasn’t what had his focus.  
It was the person heading up to the front door.

The figure must have assumed they’d lost him in the chase, given how casually they were making their way towards the sanatorium. Roman’s eyes narrowed as he watched them, the anger boiling back up inside him. This person wasn’t going to get away with all this, and Roman was going to make sure of it.

The person stopped suddenly, and Roman ducked back behind the wall right before they looked around. He held his breath as the silence continued, afraid to make any sort of noise at all, but it wasn’t him that broke the silence.

Instead, the bark of something that sounded a little more wild than a normal dog rang out across the yard, and the faint sound of a human voice came seconds later. Roman risked peeking back over the wall, and saw the figure crouched down next to -- was that a _wolf_?

The person was casually talking to and petting a wolf like it was a normal dog. Given how the person wasn’t getting their fingers bitten off, maybe it was more like a normal dog than Roman had expected.

The person didn’t seem to mind very much, and they stood back up and entered the sanatorium. The door opened with a loud creaking noise, and the person whistled to the wolf to follow them as they entered. The wolf did, and the door slammed shut behind the two of them.

There was his chance to get closer.

Roman pulled himself over the wall, the snow spraying his boots as he hit the ground. The weeds came up to his knees. He approached the building cautiously, as several of the ghost stories he and Remus used to tell each other started playing through his mind.

The sanatorium had been on the mountain long before Roman had been visiting, and he always had the sneaking suspicion it would remain there long after he was dead, despite how run-down the place looked. He’d never gotten close enough to get a good view at whatever was keeping the place standing, and even if he had that opportunity, he seriously doubted that even he and Remus would’ve been stupid enough to try to break in and play in there. It looked like the kind of place where ghosts sat around and waited for victims.

As he reached the front door to the sanatorium, a sign nailed to the door caught his eye, with text in big red capital letters. 

_SITE CONDEMNED._ _  
__DATE: JULY 12TH, 1954_

“Course.” Roman muttered to himself. “Of course, I end up in the creepiest place on the entire planet. Makes a lot of sense.”

He went for the rusty door handle anyway. When he went to turn it, though, it didn’t budge, and the door remained firmly closed. Locked.

“Dammit.”

He bit his lip, and looked the door up and down. He could probably force it open, if he really tried, but probably wasn’t much of a guarantee, and even then, he doubted it would be quiet enough to keep his entry a surprise. And even if those things didn’t matter, a part of him had to worry that taking down the door would somehow cause a domino effect, and the entire building would come down with it.

A tiny voice in his head told him to turn around. This wasn’t worth it, and going after a murderer was useless, especially one who could casually make friends with wolves. He was going to get himself killed right alongside Virgil--

His eyes caught sight of a glint of metal along the side of the building, and his thoughts stopped dead on _Virgil_. It was a window covering, and with how low it was to the ground, Roman guessed it led to some kind of basement. It looked as old as everything else there, but it also looked like something had disturbed it. It was crooked, just enough to be noticeable, and maybe, just maybe, Roman could get it open.

He hurried over to the window covering, and sure enough, there was a gap between the window covering and the opening into the sanatorium itself, with a rusted nail sticking out of the covering where it used to be connected. Roman’s fingers were red with the cold by now, but frostbite felt like the least of his problems, and he grabbed a hold of the metal panel and pulled.

It came completely off in seconds, and Roman couldn’t tell if he was feeling relief or dread as he immediately went to slide through the window into the condemned building. It was a bit of a drop to the floor, but Roman managed to keep his footing. It was a bit better inside with some form of shelter from the wind, but the chill of winter still seemed to permeate the entire building. The only light came from a hole in the ceiling, and even though it was dim and had the eerie familiarity of moonlight, no wind was coming from it. It had to lead to the first floor.

The only problem with that was that the hole was way above him. There was a platform that Roman could assume used to be connected to stairs, but what was left of the stairs was rotted away in a pile of old wood next to the platform. He’d need to find something else -- there.

An oil drum sat off to the side, barely visible in the dim moonlight, and Roman didn’t waste any time before he pushed it over towards the platform. There. That would definitely hold his weight.

He climbed up onto the platform, and while it didn’t collapse under him, it still felt dangerously unstable, and it creaked ominously in a way that Roman hoped wasn’t loud enough to bring him any unwanted attention. He reached up to the hole in the ceiling, and just barely managed to hoist himself through, old and cracking cement scraping his hands, arms and legs as he pulled himself up, and saw -- woah.

He was sitting in an entrance way that felt way larger than it had looked from the outside, even in its crumbling state. There was a huge path with an old, torn carpet that let towards a door labeled “CHAPEL”, with two grand -- or what he assumed were once grand -- curving staircases on either side. A couple of doors lined the room on either side, leading off to other sections of the sanatorium. Tall stone pillars had managed to stand the test of time while everything else decayed around them, and stretched up to the ceiling high above Roman’s head, where several skylights let the moonlight filter through. Even with countless amounts of rubble covering the place, there was a sort of beauty to the place that Roman couldn’t quite explain.

What caught his eye, however, was the strange beam of light that was illuminating the chapel door. It was coming from a source somewhere on the ground, and given how intensely it was shining, he doubted that some flashlight from the 50s got lucky and had some really good batteries. The person was nowhere to be seen, either, and Roman needed to find them. Find them and put a bullet through their skull.

He headed towards the chapel door. A sign on the front read, “Chapel Security Pass Required”, but what Roman’s eyes caught instead was the small square hole in the door at eye level, just big enough to look through. He peered through, and his resolve and anger came back all at once.

The person was in the room, and to Roman’s surprise, there were not one, but two wolves roaming around the room with them. The person threw something in the wolves’ direction, and it was only after both wolves chased after it and started to chow down when Roman realized it was a bone.

Roman swallowed nervously. Those wolves seemed hungry, if the way they went after a bone with almost no meat left on it had anything to say about it, and facing down some hungry wolves was not something Roman wanted to do in any circumstance. Still, the person was distracted. Maybe if Roman could open the door quietly without gaining attention, he could get a decent shot at him and run before the wolves could get him?

He tried the door handle, but just like the front door, it didn’t budge an inch, and Roman’s eyes caught sight of what looked like a key card lock on the wall beside the door.

Right. "Chapel Security Pass Required." Shit.  
The place was a mess, that was for sure, but it looked like a hurried mess. Like people had been trying to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was a long shot, Roman knew that, but maybe...just maybe, if he looked, there’d be a pass somewhere.

Roman turned, and quietly crept away from the chapel door, and headed instead for the door that was closest to him that led to another section of the sanatorium.

The door led him to a long hallway filled with even more doors, and Roman was immediately reminded of a hospital -- if a hospital had sat abandoned and condemned for fifty years and had rotted away from the inside out. He could hear the occasional tiny squeaking noises in the distance that sounded suspiciously like rats, and he forced the surge of dread and disgust down. They were just rats. He could handle rats.

He started down the hall, and poked his head into a couple rooms. Most of them were completely bare, and didn’t even seem worth exploring -- a rusty metal bedframe here, cabinets with the doors hanging off there, and nothing that gave any sort of hint that a security pass was hidden within it’s depths -- what the _fuck_ was that?

He had entered another room, and this time, instead of just finding the broken remains of a typical hospital room, there was a wooden table off to the side, and something -- was that a goddamn machete?

Roman approached the table, and sure enough, it was. A slightly rusted machete had it’s blade stuck in the table, and surrounding the blade was a gooey puddle of something red that Roman really didn’t want to look further into.

“Oh, gross…” Roman muttered, but still reached out to take the handle of the machete. A weapon was a weapon, after all, and he’d already proven that he wasn’t exactly fantastic with a gun. A sword, however...yeah, that was definitely more his speed. Sure, he’d never had any formal sword training, but after years and years of playing prince and villain with Remus as kids, he was fairly certain he could hit someone with a blade if he really needed to. He pulled on the handle, and the machete pulled out of the table and gore with a nasty squelching sound that made Roman cringe.

He kept the blade held out slightly in front of him as he left the room and cautiously continued down the hallway, just in case. Goosebumps had risen all over his arms, and he got the distinct feeling that it had nothing to do with the chill. He felt like he was being watched, like anything could be hiding around the doors, and if he needed to slice something in the moment, he’d be ready.

There was nothing much in the rest of the regular rooms in the hallway, but as Roman reached the end, he came across a set of double doors that were hanging wide open, and the faint sound of some kind of machinery was coming from the room. He gingerly stepped over the threshold, terrified that someone was waiting for him -- but instead, he found what looked to be the remains of an operating room. There was a huge surgical light positioned to face a metal table in the center of the room, but all of its bulbs had been smashed, and broken glass littered the table and the floor surrounding it. What caught Roman’s attention, however, was the source of the strange mechanical sound he’d been hearing.

A rotting, distinctly human arm had been positioned in some sort of mechanical trap that moved back and forth in a slow rhythm, creating the sick appearance that it was waving at him. It made the whole room smell like old blood and rotting flesh, and it made bile rise in Roman’s throat. He forced it back down, and instead, carefully approached the waving, decapitated arm, all because of the card attached to the string around its wrist. Roman couldn’t get a good look at the card itself, but if it was a security pass, he needed to get it.  
He kept his machete firmly grasped in his other hand as he reached out towards the card, almost afraid to touch it.

“Come on. Come on, just get the card and then you can leave--”

Roman cut himself off with a scream as his fingers just barely brushed the card, and the table suddenly snapped in half, revealing itself to be not a table at all, but a disguised bear trap. It caught two of Roman’s fingers right in its jaws, and Roman found himself unable to care about being too loud.

“Fuck, fuck, _fuck_!” He cursed, and tried to pull away from the bear trap in his panic, but that only made the pain worse as the metal trap held his fingers tight. Roman’s breathing became shallow and panicked. He was stuck. His fingers were trapped, and with the way he’d screamed, he seriously doubted the person didn’t hear him and know that they weren’t alone. He had to get out, he had to free himself right now and get out of this room before Virgil’s killer found him and made him the second victim of the night.

Roman looked down at the machete he’d managed to keep a hold of in his panic, and back at his fingers. Back at the machete, back at the bear trap.

_Fuck._

~~**Should Roman:** ~~

~~**Try to open the bear trap? or Amputate his fingers?** ~~

_VOTING CLOSED_

_BUTTERFLY EFFECT DISCOVERED:_

_Logan Chose Patton -- Logan Watches Remus Get Cut in Half_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nothing like posting some good old fashioned gore on halloween, huh? :)


	18. Dread: Shown Mercy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman comes face to face with a murderer.

**YOU CHOSE: AMPUTATE**

There was no way there’d be enough time to try and pry open the trap, and Roman wasn’t even sure if he could. The trap was open just a crack where his fingers were jammed, stopping it from closing entirely, but even if he could manage to pry it open, his fingers would still --

Roman shook his head quickly, doing his best to clear his mind. If he just sat here and thought about it, he’d basically be serving himself up on a silver platter for Virgil’s killer. What mattered now was action.

He gritted his teeth, and held the blade of the machete up to the joint where his broken and useless fingers met his knuckles. He took a deep breath in, and out. In, and out. He could do this. He could--

The loud bark of one of the wolves suddenly echoed from down the hall that led to the room, and panicked adrenaline suddenly surged through Roman. His fear of being caught drowned out his fear of the pain, and before he could give himself a chance to think about it any further, he drew the blade up, and swung.

Another scream tore from his throat as a flash of blinding pain hit him full force, and he instinctively stumbled backward, dropping his machete and grasping frantically at his hand. He didn’t have time to sit and let the pain run it’s course, though, he knew that as he could hear footsteps coming down the hall. They weren’t as quick as he expected them to be, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that. Instead, he dove into the nearest cabinet and shut the door tightly behind him.

Roman could feel spiderwebs clinging to his back, and the darkness of the cabinet seemed to seep into his very bones and chill them even further than the snow outside and his own fear did. He couldn’t bring himself to let go of his hand quite yet. The pain was still throbbing in his fingers, but the pressure from his other hand seemed to be helping, if only by a little bit. He bit down harshly on his lip to keep quiet, to keep even his breathing from being too loud as he heard the door to the room open with a creak he hadn’t noticed before.   
There was silence, aside from those oddly slow footsteps that seemed to echo around the room and the soft panting of a wolf. Roman tried to curl into a tighter ball, almost as if he could make it all go away by just getting smaller. He closed his eyes, though it didn’t make much of a difference in the pitch black of the cabinet. Maybe he’d wake up in his own bed again, with all his fingers intact and Virgil, alive and breathing next to him. That would be nice.

“Damned things.” A voice, presumably the person’s, muttered, and despite how quiet they were, it still cut through the silence easily and made Roman’s eyes snap open. “Getting where they don’t belong -- hey, what’re doing over there, boy?”

Roman tensed as he suddenly became very aware of the sound of a dog sniffing very closely to the door of the cabinet. It made an almost unnoticeable thunk of a noise when the wolf knocked its nose into the cabinet door.

No. God, please, no --

The **s** ilence was completely broken as the wolf let out another sharp back, one that rang through Roman’s **e** ars and made the panic surge back up in him, but this time, it paralyzed him in place instead of getting him to move. The wolf’s quiet sniffing turned into a harsh, persistent growl.

He heard the person moving, and a clang of something metal that didn’t sound quite like a gun being loaded but still made the hairs on the back of Roman’s neck stand up.

“Alright, you sneaky bastard.” The person muttered. “Thought you could hide?”

Roman held his breath, afraid to make a single sound, but he knew it wasn’t going to matter. He could feel the blood dripping down his hands from the lost fingers, of course the wolf had found him in seconds. Not to mention, Roman wasn’t sure if wolves could really smell fear, but if they could, he was certain that he was reeking of it.

Still, h **e** didn’t move an inch. He’d been found, he knew that much, but he wasn’t about to open up the final barrier between the two of them. If the person wanted to get to him, they’d have to do it themselves.

The paralysis Roman felt was partially broken as the cabinet door was suddenly thrown open, though only enough for him to flinch and look up to meet the person’s eyes. That was all he could see of them, really. They’d come much more prepared for the snow than Roman had, apparently, as a scarf covered the majority of their face, leaving just their eyes uncovered for Roman to lock onto. It was too dark to really see what color those eyes were, but as Roman caught their sight, they widened in...surprise?

The wolf was inches away from Roman, and though he’d expected it to immediately attack, once the door was open, the wolf stopped growling and instead tilted its head just slightly to the left. It would have been almost adorable, if it weren’t for the fact that Roman was currently cornered by it and a stranger who had already killed his boyfriend.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” The person said, and lowered their weapon just slightly, which looked like -- was that a _flamethrower_? “You need to work on your aim, boy. Missed me by a mile earlier.”

Roman’s voice felt stuck in his throat. All his ideas of revenge seemed to melt away when he was staring the person **i** n the face, and even though the person looked to be a bit shorter than he was, he felt six inches tall. Small enough to be easily stomped out.

The person raised their eyebrow as they waited for a response, and sighed when none came.

“Alright then. I’m only gonna’ say this once, so you better listen.” They said, and took one more step closer. Roman shrank back from them, but they didn’t seem to care. “You and your friends are gonna’ get the hell off of this mountain before anyone else gets killed, and you’re not ever coming back. Understand me?”

Roman’s mind was racing. They were going to let him go? Just like that? He’d s **n** uck into what seemed like this person’s base camp with plans to kill them, and they were just going to let them go back to the others and warn them?

“I said, do you understand me?”

Roman jumped as the person held the flamethrower back up to his face, and quickly nodded. His throat felt dry, his heart was hammering in his chest, and while the throbbin **g** pain in his hand had dulled a bit, it felt like it was doing everything it could to still hold his attention.

“Good.” The person said, and backed away from him again, lowering the flamethrower. “Now. Get the hell out before I change my mind and decide to get rid of you myself. One of the tunnels leads straight back to your fancy lodge.”

They wh **is** tled to the wolf, who immediately went back to their side, and the two of them turned to leave, but something made the person stop. Roman didn’t dare to take his eyes off of them, even just to see what had caught their attention. The person sighed again, reached into one of the many pockets on their huge winter coat, and pulled out a small white bundle of something. They set it on the operating table in the center of the room.

“There better not be a next time, but if there is, watch your damn fingers.” They said, and started to walk out of the room.

As they reached the threshold, the chokehold on Roman’s voice seemed to suddenly evaporate, and he lunged forward out of the cabinet, desperate to say something, anything.

“Virgil.” He said, and the perso **n** stopped again. “His name is Virgil. You killed him.”

Roman wasn’t sure what he wanted to get out of the person by telling him that. Accountability, maybe. Or guilt. Knowing that every time this person thought of the boy he killed on the mountain, they’d have a name to put to the face. The person turned their head just slightly, just enough that Roman could see one of their eyes.

“There’s a jacket in one of the closets here, somewhere. Unless you want to die anyway from the cold, you better go find it.” The person said. “And his name _was_ Virgil, boy. Get used to that.”

They left the room without another word, the wolf by their side, and something in R **o** man’s chest cracked.

_Was._

He dropped back down to his knees as the adrenaline seemed to drain from him all at once, just from that one little word, and overpowering grief replaced the air in his lungs. His name _was_ Virgil. He _was_ his boyfriend. He _was_ alive, living, breathing, beautiful.

But not anymore. Now, his body was left at the bottom of a mineshaft somewhere, the light gone from his eyes and his skin paler than i **t** ever had been. His chest was perfectly still wherever he was, alone and cold and never waking up again.

Virgil Hughes was dead, and it was all Roman’s fault.

Roman let out a choked sob that had been locked away in his chest by the rush of the past hour, and he no longer cared if the person heard him. They already knew he was there, what did it matter? What did anything matter, really? His boyfriend was dead, and even if he had been able to break through that paralyzing fear and kill Virgil’s killer, it wouldn’t have brought Virgil back to life.

Roman wasn’t sure how long he sat there and let himself cry, but by the time he ran out of tears, the slow footsteps were long gone, and he felt drained. He looked up, and his eyes caught the little white bundle that the person had left on the table.

It was gauze. **A** small, clean bundle of white gauze that he could use for bandages.

Roman had almost forgotten about his missing fingers in the sudden tida **l** wave of grief that had slammed into him, but now, he looked down at his hand to really look at it for the first time since he’d cut them off.

It looked **w** orse than it felt. All that was left of his pinky and his ring finger were two ragged stumps that ended just above his knuckles, covered completely in dried blood. Roman was almost grateful for the blood. It turned everything around the **a** rea the same color, and in the dim light, he couldn’t tell if he could see any bone poking through. There probably was bone if he looked any closer, but the last thing he needed was to make himself sick on top of everything else.

He reached out gingerl **y** with his good hand to pick up the gauze off of the table, and slowly started to wrap up what was left of his fingers. There was a sort of a methodical rhythm to wrapping the gauze around and around, and the slow repetition calmed his brain just slightly. Slow and steady. Think through the next step. Breathe.

He shakily got back up to his feet once he’d finished wrapping his hand, and he took one more deep breath as he looked around the room. His machete lay forgotten on the floor be **s** ide the operating table, and he stooped to pick it up. His movements felt almost robotic, like he was watching himself from outside of his body go through the motions that would let him survive. Wrap his hand. Stand up. Get the blade. Start searching through the cabinets and closets for a jacket. Leave. Get the others. Get off the mountain. It was a steady to-do list in his head, and he tried his best to focus on that. He’d had his time to have a break down, and there’d be plenty more time for crying and screaming and blaming himself later. For now, the person was giving him and all his friends a chance to escape, and Roman was going to take it. The list of people he’d lost to the mountain was three too many for his liking, and he was not about to let it get to four.

He’d seen the jacket the person had mentioned in one of the closets in the rooms he’d searched, but he’d left it behind in his haste to find a security pass. He made his way back to the room, jumping at every little unnatural sound the building made. What if the person decided he was taking too long and came back to finish him off? With the way they killed Virgil, Roman seriously doubted they were the patient type. He needed to find the tunnel that led to the lodge, and quickly.

The jacket was still hanging in the closet by the time he got there. It was a dull shade of red, almost brown, and it looked like it had to have been hanging there for at least fifty years. Still, the person did have a point. Roman felt frozen down to his bones, and there was no way he didn’t have at least some form of frostbite already. He couldn’t warn the others and get off the mountain if he died of hypothermia somewhere in the middle of the woods.

He shook out the coat before he put it on, and thankfully, no spiders or centipedes or any other creepy-crawlies seemed to have decided to use the jacket at their home. It seemed like a good jacket as Roman put it on, and almost instantly felt warmer than he had all night, including when he’d had his own winter clothes on. It seemed to shield him from the cold just fine, and that only made him wonder why someone would leave it behind --

Actually, scratch that. He didn’t want to know.

Roman made his way back towards the main entrance of the sanatorium, and as he made his way back towards the chapel door, he found that the person had left it wide open this time. A little note in a messy scrawl had been left on the front of it, held up **b** y medical tape.

_FOLLOW THE OPEN DOORS._

“Sure.” Roman muttered, and tore the note down to take with him. He folded it up, slipping it in his pocket. “Sure, follow the trail the murderer’s left. Great idea.”

Even as h **e** said that, though, he started walking into the chapel. The ceiling was somehow taller than they had been in the entrance hall, and the ceiling itself was made almost entirely of glass that let the moonlight pour in. The room itself was mostly empty, apart from a couple of scattered chairs and a couch that all **l** ooked like they’d been rotting away for generations, and random little boxes that Roman could only assume were full of the person’s belongings.

Another wolf was sitting by the couch, and **i** t immediately got to its feet when it spotted Roman, a dangerous growl coming from him. Roman tensed, and backed away a few steps. Sure, that other one hadn’t attacked him, but Roman got the feeling that he was **e** ntering territory he wasn’t supposed to be in, even if the person had left a trail for him to follow. He could see another open door on the far wall, but the wolf was standing between him and that destination.

“...hey.” Roman said, and did his best to swallow his fear and keep his **v** oice low. He crouched a bit further to the ground, and slowly started to walk towards the wolf, holding his hand out towards it. If the person could get the wolves to like them, surely he could, too. “Hey there, buddy. I’m not a threat, I promise. Just trying to get through.”

The wolf eyed him warily, and Roman stopped where he stood as it started to come closer to him. He kept his hand steady, and when the wolf got close enough to sniff at his fingers, he tried his best to bite back the nerves rising inside him. He’d already lost two fingers today, he d **i** dn’t need to lose any more.

The wolf stopped growling at him, and was instead looking at him with a certain curiosity behind its eyes, same as the look the other wolf had given him when they found him in the cabinet. Roman couldn’t help but get the strange feeling that they’d been expecting someone other than him, but he didn’t want to stop to dwell on it for too long. He reached out a bit further, and carefully pet the top of the wolf’s head.

“See? I’m not so bad.” Roman said. “Yeah? Not so bad at all. Can I get through?”

Roman didn’t wait for an actual answer to that question, but when he straighte **n** ed back up to his full height and began to slowly make his way towards the open door, and the wolf didn’t do anything to stop him, he assumed that was his answer. He let out a sigh of relief as he made it through the open door, only to find a dark hallway stretchin **g** out further than he could see, and a small oil lantern left by the door.

The light was a dim orange, but it would be better than nothing. Roman carefully picked it up with his good hand, and started down the path that he hoped would lead back to the lodge, and not a psychopathic murderer’s trap. 

**\-- REMY, 1:05 A.M. --**

Remy wasn’t really one for holding hands, even with his boyfriend. He only got super touchy when he was exhausted, and even then, he usually just ended up snuggling into Emile’s side, grumbling something about sleep being for the weak, and drifting off anyway.

But here, speedwalking through the woods to get to the cable car station with the knowledge of a murderer loose on the mountain, he was squeezing Emile’s hand so tightly he was fairly certain he was cutting off blood flow.

“God, this is insane.” He said, more to himself than to Emile, but Emile nodded right beside him.

“No kidding.”

“You don’t...you don’t really think that happened, do you?” Remy asked.

“Well, Patton and Logan looked pretty messed up.” Emile said, and a visible shudder ran through him. “And you and I both know that Logan’s not one for pranks, and he’s not a good actor.”

“I guess.” Remy said, and shoved his free hand in his pocket. “I don’t know, it’s just not sitting right. Yeah, maybe Patton and Logan thought they saw something, but maybe we should have gone back and checked. Just to make sure.”

“That’s probably a worse idea than you think it is.” Emile said. Remy didn’t like the grim look Emile had on his face. It looked strange on him. Remy rarely saw him without at least a hint of a smile tilting up the corners of his mouth. “There’s some images that will be so horrible that they’ll burn into your memory forever, and I get the feeling that seeing a friend cut clean in half by a buzz saw is going to be one of those things.”

“I guess that’s fair.” Remy said. It wasn’t like he wanted to see it if it was true, but still. Something about how quickly it had happened made Remy feel uneasy.

Or maybe it had taken longer than it felt like. He and Emile had spent a bit more time outside than Remy had guessed it would take after all, and hearing traumatic screams over the winter wind would have been hard to do. Maybe it had been going on for hours, and they’d been completely oblivious to it all.

God, he hoped everyone else was okay. Dee could sleep through a bombing if he tried, and he knew fully well that Roman and Virgil could distract each other just fine. Sure, maybe it was a bit of a stretch to think that all three of them could be so distracted that they’d miss an actual murder, but if it wasn’t in the lodge, well. Who knew.

Remy let out a sigh of relief as the cable car station came into view. It always felt further away than it actually was, and it had especially felt that way now, when every unknown snap of a twig was making his blood run colder.

“Thank Jesus.” He said, and picked up his pace, pulling Emile along with him. “Come on, the sooner we get out, the better.”

“You’re not going to here me argue.” Emile agreed, and kept pace with Remy as they made their way to the door. 

Remy only let go of Emile’s hand once they were a foot from the door. His fingers closed around the frozen doorknob, and turned.

Nothing happened. His fingers slipped around the doorknob, but the knob itself didn’t budge.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” He muttered, and started trying the doorknob more frantically. “No, no, come on--”

“What’s wrong?”

Remy turned his head in his direction, only to see Emile with an ax in his hands. The words he was going to say died in his throat immediately, and he simply stared at Emile for a few seconds. Emile blinked, and put two and two together.

“What? I feel safer with an ax. Sue me.”

“Where’d you even find that?”

In response, Emile pointed to the wall of cable car station just a few feet from the door. Sure enough, there was a now-empty glass case on the side of the building, with the words “EMERGENCIES ONLY” painted across it in bolded red letters.

“I figured it counts as an emergency.” Emile shrugged, and Remy couldn’t help but nod.

“Yeah. Yeah, if this isn’t one, I’m not sure what is.” He said, and turned back towards the door, resting his hands on his hips. “Door’s locked.”

“Locked?” Emile asked, and reached forward towards the doorknob.

“Okay, babe, I’m not sure what you think your magic hands are going to do that mine can’t.” Remy sighed. “I just tried that. It’s not budging.”

“Well, damn.” Emile said, and bit his lip, looking around nervously. “There’s gotta’ be another way in, right -- there!”

Remy’s eyes followed where Emile was pointing, and caught on one of the windows on the side of the station. It had been pushed open, yes, but calling it “open” was a stretch. There was barely a sliver of space between the windowpane and the building.

“Em.”

“What? It’s open!” Emile said, and rested the ax on his shoulder. “It’s a way in, and that’s what we need.”

“Yeah, a way in for my chapstick, maybe.” Remy said. “If I could even fit that through.”

“I think you could fit.” Emile said. “All we’d need to do is pry it open a bit.”

“There is no way in hell I’m fitting through that window.”

“I mean...I’ve seen you squeeze into some pretty tight jeans before, Rem--hey!”

Remy punched him in the shoulder. Not hard enough to actually hurt by any means, but definitely enough to get his point across.

“I don’t _squeeze_ , I fit just fine, thank you.”

“Not what I meant. And _ow_.” Emile said, and rubbed at his shoulder. “It was meant to be a compliment.”

“Work on your compliments, babe.” Remy said. “Actually, no, don’t, use that doctor brain of yours to think of another way, ‘kay?”

“I’m telling you. That’s the best way through.” Emile insisted. “Do you see another way through?”

Remy thought for a second. He looked at the door. Then back at Emile. And his eyes zeroed in on the ax resting gently against Emile’s shoulder. Huh. Yeah, that could work.

“Actually, yeah, I do.” Remy said. “Use that emergency ax and chop the door down.”

“What, like the Shining?” Emile asked, raising an eyebrow. “I think you’re overestimating how strong I am.”

“Oh, come on. It’s a door. You have an ax. Put the pieces together.” Remy said. “How hard can it be?”

“Yeah, well, it’s going to be noisy.” Emile said, and looked back at the tree line of the forest nervously. “Look, I don’t want to freak you out or anything, but we don’t know where this crazy guy is. I don’t think we should risk making a lot of noise and drawing attention to ourselves.”

Remy bit his lip, and glanced back at the tree line. Emile did have a point. The door wasn’t sturdy enough to hold up against a good ax, but it was certainly strong enough that it would put up a loud fight. Remy’s heart rate picked up as he thought of some psychopath catching them trying to escape with only one ax to protect the both of them. It would be better than nothing, especially with two against one, but there had been three against one whe it came to Patton, Logan, and Remus, and, well. Logan and Patton had made it pretty clear how that turned out. Remy wasn’t too keen on being next.

But as his eyes turned back to the window, doubt seeped back in. The crack was so tiny, Remy wasn’t even sure if either of them could fit their fingers in it to pry it open any further. And the longer they took to get into the cable car station and get the cable car started, the longer it would take to get back to the others, leaving them trapped in the lodge with a psycho on the loose. 

~~**Should Remy:** ~~

~~**Agree with Emile? or Chop down the door?** ~~

**VOTING CLOSED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fellow unus annus fans, how we feeling today


	19. Dread: Sleeping Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One is still asleep, and that just won't do.

**YOU CHOSE: AGREE WITH EMILE**

“Ugh, fine.” Remy said, and crossed his arms over his chest as he walked over to the window. “You win.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, babe, enjoy it while it lasts.” Remy glanced back at Emile. “But if I get stuck in this stupid window, it’s not the murderer you’ll have to be worried about.”

“Note taken.” Emile said, and Remy stood back a tad as Emile slid the axe into the thin gap between the window and the wall. He turned the axe outward, and the window budged, just barely. Still not nearly enough to get Remy through just yet, but one of the many things that Remy admired about his boyfriend was the fact that he wasn’t a quitter in any sense of the word.

“Come on…” Emile muttered, and pulled the axe upward. The window didn’t slam open, but it did give a harsh, reluctant creaking noise as it was forced open a bit more, and it looked now like Remy could squeeze through, if he tried.

“Here, help me up.” Remy said.

Emile set the axe down in the snow, and leaned down with his fingers interlocked to make a sort of footstool for Remy to boost him up. As it was, Remy’s fingers could only reach the windowsill if he stood on his tiptoes, but with Emile’s help, Remy’s hands grasped firmly onto the windowsill, and it was much easier to squeeze himself through.

The cold metal scraped against his back and stomach, and he was beginning to realize just how bad of an idea this was when he noticed that the floor wasn’t exactly close to the window, and the room was a disaster. The filing cabinets and neatly stacked manuals that had rested on the tables in the back of the cable car station had been flung about the room, and had crashed randomly about the place, trashing it. Not only that, but Remy could see a repeating word sloppily painted over and over again across the walls, like whoever had done it had been in a hurry-- 

_DIE._

Very friendly.

Remy bit his lip as he managed to pull himself the rest of the way through, and by some miracle landed on the floor below without finding a way to accidentally brain himself on one of the corners of the metal cabinets. He stood up and brushed himself off, and did his best to ignore the nausea churning in his stomach as he stared at the crimson letters that seemed to be burning their way into his vision. They’d all come up to the mountain through this very station, and it had been just fine. When had it become such a mess? Had he and Emile really been out that long? Did it even _take_ long?

_Die. Die. Die--_

“Rem?”

Emile’s voice calling from outside snapped Remy out of it and he started heading to the front of the cable car station, where the door was.

“Coming!”

It didn’t take anything to open the door from the inside, and Emile was through in seconds, only to stop short when he noticed the mess. It was even worse in the front, with spare winter supplies knocked over to turn the path to the door into a miniature obstacle course -- gloves, old snowshoes knocked askew, a trash can and a ski that had been long since snapped in two. It was a weird collection of items, but when Emile caught sight of the message on the walls his breath caught in the exact same horrified way that Remy’s had.

“What the hell?”

“Yeah, something tells me he expected us to think about the cable car station.” Remy said. He stuffed his hands into his pockets to hide the way they were shaking. “And we might have just missed him.”

“Well, let’s hope he doesn’t come back.” Emile said, and made a beeline for the control panel of the cable car that sat in the back of the station. “At least not until we’re back at the foot of this stupid mountain -- oh, shit.”

Remy blinked. Emile wasn’t as bad as Patton was, but it still took a lot for him to actually swear, and whenever he did, it usually meant something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. The nerves in Remy’s gut heightened.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Despite asking, Remy didn’t wait to hear the answer. Instead, he headed to Emile’s side, and looked down at the control panel. There, on the bottom right of the panel, labeled with the words “START” and “STOP” in big white block letters, was an ignition switch.

An ignition switch with no keys.

“Fuck.” Remy muttered, and took a shaky step backwards.

“No keys, no cable car.” Emile said, and with those words he’d spoken aloud the one thought going through Remy’s brain.

They were screwed. Completely and utterly screwed. The cable car was the only way on or off the mountain, and if the keys to get it working were gone, they were stranded. Stranded with a murderer who, given the state of the station, knew exactly what he was doing, and wasn’t planning on leaving any escape routes.

Remy looked out from the control panel to the cable lines that led down the mountain. He could spot the car, just barely, far in the distance. It must’ve been halfway down the mountain when it had been stopped, and there was no way any of them would be reaching it without the keys to bring it closer.

Remy fought to keep down the bile rising in his throat. Trapped. They were trapped on a mountain with a killer who’d already murdered one of their friends.

“Remy? Rem, hey, stay with me.” Emile said, resting a gentle hand on Remy’s shoulder. “We have to think, there has to be another way off the mountain--”

“There isn’t.” Remy said, his voice hollow. “Not unless you want to scale a bunch of cliffs.”

“Yeah, well, let’s call that the emergency plan.” Emile said, and when Remy turned to look at him, he could practically see gears turning behind Emile’s eyes.

And there was another one of the many reasons Remy loved his boyfriend. It was in his nature to put everyone else above himself and think through things, and right now, Remy could see both of those traits plain as day. It cleared his head slightly, the way Emile was looking at him. Emile was holding himself together for Remy, it was only fair that Remy tried to do the same.

“Right. Um…” Remy muttered, and tried to think. The cable car station was a bust, and there were no other ways off the mountain, so if there were no ways off…

“Fire tower.” Emile said, getting to the point right before Remy reached it himself. “There’s a fire tower up on the mountain, right? I think I remember seeing it last year.”

“Yeah, there’s one. Roman said it hadn’t really seen a lot of action lately, but I think they still had someone up there before last year. Still have to keep an eye out for fires in the wild even when a rich family’s bought the place, I guess.”

“So it’ll still have a working radio.” Emile said, and Remy could hear the puzzle pieces clicking together. “Look, if we can’t get off the mountain, we’re going to have to call someone to come get us. Cell service is awful up here, but a fire tower radio is literally designed for emergencies, and if this isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is.”

“Way to steal my line.” Remy said, a tiny smile coming over his face. “But yeah, you’re right. Fire tower’s our best option.”

And their only one, but Remy’s stomach was already tied in knots without that reminder.

Emile stepped away from Remy, and started leafing through the scattered papers on the floor with a sudden intensity, letting the discarded ones fall where they may. Remy crouched beside him, raising an eyebrow at him.

“So...you going to tell me what you’re looking for?”

“Can’t get to the fire tower easily if we don’t have some sort of map -- ha!” Emile grinned as he flipped over one of the many papers to find a more detailed map of the forest trails, with certain landmarks labeled with stars along the way. “I don’t know about you, but if there’s a murderer out there, I want the quickest path in and out of the dark, spooky forest that neither of us know very well.”

“Fair.” Remy said, and squinted over Emile’s shoulder at the map. It was tiny, and a bit difficult to read, but if it led them straight to the fire tower, Emile was right. Remy wanted in and out as fast as possible, so they could meet up with the others and stick together. He loved Emile, but being alone out here with him was definitely making Remy antsy. “There.”

He pointed when he spotted it, the little star along one of the trails labeled “FIRE TOWER”. It was further out from the lodge than the cable car was, and if the map’s little marking were anything to go by, it was in a little clearing of its own, connected to a trail that Remy was sure wasn’t hiked down often. Roman and Remus weren’t avid hikers, exactly, but when you vacationed on a mountain in the summertime, you were bound to get at least one in.

“Perfect.” Emile said, and folded the map back up. He stuck the rectangle in his jacket pocket where it poked out, and held his hand out to Remy. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“No arguments from me.” Remy agreed, and took his hand. It was warm, despite the cold, and Remy had found that Emile always seemed to be warm. He squeezed his hand tightly as they left the cable car station, and Emile squeezed back.

“Y’know, makes sense that we’d be the ones trying the hardest to get out of here.” Emile said, and Remy raised an eyebrow at him.

“What? Why?”

“We’ve got the most at stake.” Emile said, and a hint of his more typical grin tilted the corners of his mouth up. “I’m black and you’re trans. If this is a horror movie, we’re not going to make it out.”

Any semblance of a smile disappeared off of Remy’s face.

“Really? You’re going to make jokes right now?”

“It’s either that or lose my mind worrying.” Emile shrugged.

“Save the jokes for when we’re not actually in danger.” Remy said, and his words came out colder than he expected. The trace of a smile left Emile’s face, and he turned to watch the path as they walked.

“Right. Yeah.”

Remy watched him for a few more seconds before he turned his attention back to the trail. His pulse hammered in him, a beat that was becoming unsteady the more he thought about their situation.

_If this is a horror movie, we’re not going to make it out._

Remy squeezed Emile’s hand one more time, and silently prayed that for once, just this once, his boyfriend was wrong. 

**\-- DEE, 11:54 P.M. --**

The slam of his bedroom door was what woke him up, and his eyes snapped open so fast it made his head spin. _Fuck._

Dee groaned as he pushed himself to sit up in bed, and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He hated being woken up with a start like that. Going from being completely unconscious to completely awake in half a second made him feel like he hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. He reached out blindly for his phone, and winced as the bright screen flashed in his eyes, giving him a brief glimpse of the time.

11:54.

Just six minutes before his alarm was going to go off, and Dee was certain the others knew that.

“Okay, whoever did that, you have ten seconds to run.” He called out, and set his phone back down on the bedside table as he swung his legs over the bed. Really, given how slow he tended to be after he woke up, they probably had a good five minutes, but whatever. Dee would figure it out eventually, get whoever it was back by the end of the weekend, and call it square.

He stretched as he stood up, and the first thing he noticed about the room once he got his bearings was the fact that his backpack, which he’d left sitting by the foot of the bed once he’d changed into his pajama pants, was gone. All his other clothes aside from his pajamas, gone. Vanished into the darkness.

Which wouldn’t really be much of a prank if it weren’t for the fact that Dee wasn’t exactly in the habit of wearing a shirt to bed.

Great.

Dee sighed, and stomped over to the door, throwing it open with no qualms.

“Really funny, guys, now--”

The sentence stopped dead in his throat as he caught sight of what was waiting for him outside of the bedroom door. Three little candles, already dripping with wax, were sitting on the other side of the hallway, surrounding a balloon with an arrow painted on it that pointed down the hall. The lodge felt eerily silent, too, which sent a strange chill down Dee’s spine. He knew these idiots. They played pranks all the time, sure, but once they had their punch line, they were terrible at keeping quiet. So here he was, outside of his room in just his pajama pants with his clothes stolen. There was the punchline. Where were the others?

Dee narrowed his eyes as he stared at the balloon, and looked down the hall in the direction it pointed. It was pointing away from the set of stairs that led down to the living room, and as Dee looked, he could see what looked like a similar set of candles and a balloon further down the hall. More directions.

They must not have reached their punchline yet.

Dee sighed, and closed the door behind him before he started down the hallway. This was a trap, obviously. It would be some sort of weird trap where they got him in a room where they were all hiding and jumped out to scare him, just to snap a picture of his reaction. That was how they worked. They pulled dumb pranks, laughed at the results, and then brushed it off by the next morning. Dee knew their bag of tricks, and if he’d become the target just because he wanted to get some sleep, then fine. He’d play the game, they just wouldn’t get a good reaction. Dee could be stone faced if he wanted to.

“Very fancy with the balloons and candles, guys. Real suburban haunted house vibes.” Dee called. His voice echoed through the lodge, and even with how big it was, he was sure the others could hear him. His voice was the only sound in the entire cabin, of course they could hear him. “Really went all out with this one.”

Dee got no response as he climbed down the back stairs and headed down the back hallway towards the front door and the kitchen. The balloons laid out a pretty clear path, and while they were definitely creepy alongside the cold silence, Dee kept a straight face. He wasn’t planning on giving them the satisfaction.

“Okay, guys, really funny. ‘Ha-ha, look at Dee, walking around shirtless’. Very original. You want to give me back my clothes now, or am I just going to walk around for the rest of the weekend like this and get frostbite -- fuck!”

He jumped as the grandfather clock he was approaching suddenly went off, signaling midnight, the curse slipping from him before he could hold it back. Okay. Okay, that hadn’t actually scared him, it was just…the sudden noise amongst the silence. Yeah. Definitely.

Dee swallowed as he kept going, finding more candles dripping wax onto the hardwood. Alright. If they had planned that, his friends were getting far better at creepy pranks than they used to be.

The balloons were leading him towards the little home theater in the back of the lodge. It was kind of a strange room to pick, if you asked Dee, because even with all the seats in there, there weren’t many hiding places at all. He could see the movie screen flickering with static that reminded him of old black-and-white movies, as if it was film instead of digital. He paused for a second before he stepped inside, a little cautious.

“Guys? You in here?”

He was met with no response, and tentatively, he stepped forward.

The second he was completely in the room, the double doors that led to the theater swung shut behind him, and Dee heard the unmistakable click of a lock. His heart suddenly pounded in his chest and he swung around, immediately going to turn the doorknob. His hand twisted around the knob, but the door didn’t budge, not even as he rattled it and started pounding on the door.

“Guys! Hey, come on, this isn’t funny anymore--”

_“Who said anything about being funny, Theodore?”_

Dee’s blood froze as he heard that name, and his heart seemed to stop in his chest. The voice come from a little speaker in the corner of the room, and Dee slowly turned to look at it. He was certain there was dread in his eyes, but he suddenly didn’t care anymore. His friends had plenty of pranks, sure, but they knew their limits. They all knew that he hated his full name, they wouldn’t use it against him. Not only that, but Dee knew for a fact that they _couldn’t_ use it against him.

Because they didn’t know what it was.

Dee heard a slight chuckle over the speaker.

“ _No one has called you that in an awfully long time, have they?_ ”

“Who are you?” Dee asked, and was honestly surprised at how steady his voice was. “How do you--”

“ _Shh, shh. None of that, now._ ” The voice said. _“No one likes when you ask too many questions during a show, after all.”_

Dee blinked as the flickering screen suddenly evened out. It was a video of one of the bedrooms in the lodge, which didn’t seem all that disturbing for a few seconds, but once he got a better look at the person asleep in bed, his stomach lurched.

It was him. Fast asleep in bed, from not even an hour before. And not just typical security-style footage either, like a camera had been set up in the corner of the room. It kept switching to close ups of his sleeping face that made his blood turn to ice. Someone had been watching him sleep. Someone he didn’t know had been in the room, watching him, filming him, right when he was most vulnerable.

“What the fuck…” He muttered, and he shifted his arms to try and cover more of his chest. He felt exposed and more vulnerable than he ever had in his life, and it made him sick.

“ _Not a fan?_ ” The voice picked up again from the speaker, distorted and staticky. “ _I think he’s quite beautiful._ ”

“What the fuck, what the _fuck_ , turn it off!” Dee shouted, and his nerves seemed to power his disgust and anger. “Turn it off, what’s wrong with you, who are you?”

“ _You don’t need to know who I am._ ” The voice said, and Dee could practically hear a smile in their voice, which didn’t do anything to help his unease. “ _But I know everything about you._ ”

Dee didn’t want to listen to this anymore. He went back to pounding on the door, trying to get it open even though the knob still refused to budge.

“Hey! Remus? Logan? Patton, anyone! Let me out of here!”

“ _If you’re waiting for your friends to come save you, I’m afraid you’re far too late._ ”

Dee flinched as the light from behind him changed. He didn’t want to look. Whatever was on that screen, he was certain he didn’t want to see it. He shouldn’t look. He shouldn’t play into this person’s game--

He turned anyway, and instantly let out a scream as he watched Remus being torn in half with a buzzsaw. Remus’ own screams were silent, but Dee could see them, plain as day. The camera continued to roll even after Remus went limp, and Dee could see his torn guts splayed out over the buzzsaw.

“NO! No, what did you _do_ , fuck--” Dee yelled, aand took a few steps towards the screen, almost as if Remus was there in the room and Dee could somehow find a way to save him.

“ _It’s your turn to play, Theodore._ ” The voice continued, completely ignoring Dee’s question. “ _I’ll give you ten seconds. Ten, nine…_ ”

Dee’s heart was pounding wildly in his ears as he looked around the room frantically. He’d been right before, there were no good places to hide in the theater aside from the chairs, maybe, and those were far too easy to search. His eyes caught sight of a second door leading into the theater, and if his memory was serving him right, that led to another back hallway. An escape route.

_“Eight....seven....just kidding.”_

Dee couldn’t help it. He screamed as the double doors leading into the theater suddenly burst open, revealing a person that Dee had never seen before. They were wearing a strange white mask that almost resembled a skull, and it hid their entire face, with only scraggly black hair sticking out behind it. The overalls and flannel shirt they were wearing were old and sickeningly bloodstained, and Dee could only hope that the bloodstains weren’t fresh. He was holding something in his hand that Dee couldn’t get a good look at. Not that he wanted to.

Dee suddenly understood the phrase "fight-or-flight" better than he had in his entire life. 

~~**Should Dee:** ~~

~~**Be aggressive? or Try to escape?** ~~

**VOTING CLOSED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah gii and i came up with this whole thing about dee's name for this story and then a couple weeks later his name got revealed. thanks thomas, you threw off our groove
> 
> also i didn't want to do the magic towel thing, but i figured i'd meet you guys in the middle and give you a Snitties Out Look. you're welcome


	20. Psychosis: Cat and Mouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dee plays a dangerous game of hide and seek, and Remy and Emile make a dangerous climb.

**YOU CHOSE: TRY TO ESCAPE**

Dee didn’t waste another second before tearing off in the direction of the door, which thankfully, opened without a problem. Dee hadn’t really stopped to think about the door being locked before he ran to it, but at the moment, with a maniac standing between him and the only other exit, the possibility of a lock felt like the least of his worries.

Dee slammed the door shut behind him and sprinted down the back hallway. Back in this portion of the lodge were just a bunch of empty guest bedrooms that they didn’t tend to use. The rooms had stacks of cardboard boxes in them, full of old junk that no one wanted to sort through, and as Dee skidded to a brief halt, he kicked up a layer of dust that he choked on.

There was a space between the bed and the floor that was probably big enough to hide under, but Dee knew better than that. He took a half a second to catch a breath that wasn’t full of dust, and climbed over the bed towards the door on the other side of the room.

Not a moment too soon.

The door Dee had entered the room from **s** lammed back **o** pen, the handle making a loud cracking noise as it collided with the wall. Dee didn’t give hi **m** self tim **e** to scream as the ligh **t** from the hallway was blocked by the s **i** lhouette of the maniac, _Remus’ killer,_ and scrambled for the other door. He didn’t even bother to sla **m** it behind him this tim **e** . The only thing Dee could think about wa **s** his heartbeat pounding in his ears and the immense need to get away, get away, get away now. His sense of self-preservation had yanked the wheel away from any other senses he had, and was keeping the wheel firmly to itself.

He didn’t even think much about where he was even going. His brain saw a potential escape from each room he entered and immediately took it. The lodge seemed to blur into door after door, escape after escape, and Dee doubted he would have even registered if the floor had been covered in broken glass. All that mattered was getting the hell away from the person who wanted him dead. Dee would not die tonight, no sir. Not if he had anything to say about it.

Before he knew it, he found himself taking the stairs two at a time down into the basement of the lodge. It was a twisting maze of old junk, outdoor equipment, and overflowing shelves down there, and it had been like that since before Dee even came to the lodge the first time. Add the fact that the lights were out and the only wa **y** to see was fr **o** m the tiny silvers of moonlight that still managed to creep in thro **u** gh the window slits near the ceiling, and it became a perfect place to lose a potential killer.

At least, that’s what Dee hoped.

He could still hear footsteps behind hi **m** as he descended the cement stairs down into the basement. They so **u** nded slow and heavy, but no matter how quickly Dee ran, they always felt like they were right behind him. The **s** ound was keeping his adrenaline up, though, forcing him forward and not giving him the ability to le **t** his guard down and believe that he’d gotten away just yet.

Dee weaved through the rows upon rows of storage. He was breathing heavy now, something that he cursed himself for. He would be easier to hear like that, easier to find, easier to catch.

As he reached the back of the cellar, his eyes zeroed in on another door. It looked older than all the other ones in the lodge, with a strange little sliding window cut into the middle of it. He ran straight for it, just like he had every other door -- a chance to escape -- but when he reached for the handle, he found nothing but a smooth metal panel with a hole punched into it.

Well, that cinched it. The universe hated him.

Dee’s eyes darted frantically around the small hallway he now found himself cornered in. He was surrounded on both sides by shelves full of old wine bottles, some of which looked like they were empty, and others that were just half of a broken bottle left in a slot. As he looked around, he spotted what looked like something round and metal sitting on the top of one -- the same dark metal that the panel on the door was made out of.

Dee started reaching for it, but his heart leapt into his chest and his adrenaline kicked back into high gear when he saw him. The maniac was standing at the other end of the hallway, once again blocking his only exit, but this time, he wasn’t waiting by the exit. He was coming towards him, slowly but steadily, and suddenly, Dee didn’t care about how much noise he was making anymore. It hadn’t seemed to do him much good.

In **s** te **a** d of climbing up the shel **v** ing unit, he yank **e** d it down.

The shelves came crashing to the floor, and most of the bottles didn’t seem to survive the fall, as a dark liquid started spilling out from underneath the shelf. Dee’s eyes zeroed in on the round metal object, which was, just as he suspected, what looked to be the handle. He lunged for it as the maniac got closer. The shelf seemed to slow him down just a tad as he had to step through it and the broken glass that now littered the path, but it didn’t slow him down enough for Dee’s liking.

Dee didn’t even dare to look behind him and check on the maniac’s progress once he had the handle in his hands. He scrambled for the door, his fingers shaking as he slipped the handle into its place in the door and struggled to turn it.

“Come on, come on--!” He said, panicked words slipping out of him before he could stop them. The footsteps were right behind him, he could hear them, any second now he would be caught--

The door finally opened right as Dee felt the brush of gloved fingers on the back of his shoulder, and he screamed as he threw himself into the new room and slammed the door firmly shut behind him. He scrambled to pull the second lock shut, and another scream launched from his throat as the same gloved hand that had nearly grabbed his shoulder came through the sliding window in the door, and reached to undo the lock.

His hands acted before his brain caught up, and he grabbed the handle of the sliding window and tried to pull it shut, crushing it against the maniac’s fingers with as much strength as he could manage. He could hear muffled swearing from behind the door as the hand instinctively retreated, and he pulled the window firmly shut, blocking him out completely.

Dee stepped backwards, staring at the door as he heard the muffled banging noise of a fist pounding against the wood. His heart was still racing in his chest, though. The door was locked, but something in Dee’s gut told him it wouldn’t hold for long. Not against this guy.

He took a second to look around his surroundings. He’d never had an **y** reason to go through this d **o** or before, and if the handle had been completely separated from the door, he do **u** bted that anyone else had, eithe **r** . The room was once again full of boxe **s** \-- how much storag **e** did the Sanders’ _need_ \-- but as Dee’s eyes adjusted to the **l** ow light, he could see a pretty clear dif **f** erence. These boxes looked much older, with water stains and dirt smudged up the sides. Dee could spot piles and piles of yellowing newspapers sitting further off in the corner, amongst a table that looked more like some kind of torture device than a table. There was yet another door behind Dee. It had been painted white at some point, but most of the paint had peeled away, leaving the door streaked with its original brown color.

It was a door that Dee took immediate notice of once the little panel that kept the window shut started to slowly slide back open.

Dee shrieked, and ran for the door before the maniac’s hand could even get back through. Sure, he could likely stay and keep pulling the panel back until the maniac got bored with him, but the need to escape was burning through Dee’s veins. He pushed on the door handle, but it didn’t move, once again condemning him to being trapped in the room he’d thrown himself in.

Not for long, anyway.

The door looked about as stable as a house of cards, and with the panic making Dee’s heart rate skyrocket at the quiet creaking noise of a panel being worked open, it didn’t take anything for him to slam his shoulder into it and knock it down.

Unfortunately, the door was higher up than Dee had expected, and the force he had used sent him sprawling face first into a pile of what felt like gravel. It scraped across his exposed skin, and by the way the palms of his hands and elbows were stinging, there would probably be some blood to clean up later. If he even got a later.

Dee pushed himself up, and started forward through the strange hall he’d found himself in. The lodge had a rustic feel to it, yes, and the basement could sometimes feel like it belonged in a horror movie, but it was nothing compared to this. The hall Dee was in felt decades old, maybe even a century or two. What was left of the little pillars that had been built into the wall were crumbling into nothingness. Light fixtures above his head were splintered and dark, and amongst the rubble and decay, pieces of rusted iron grating remained, the only pieces that had sustained the test of time.

What the hell?

Dee’s confusion was thrown immediately out of his mind when he heard the panel in the other room click against the other side of the window. He was getting really tired of the adrenaline rushes coming and going in spurts so fast he was certain he’d end the night in a heart attack, but once again, he listened. The hall led further down into complete darkness, but out of the corner of his eye, Dee could spot yet another doorway. This one had no door, but instead, was partially covered by that same iron grating that decorated the rest of the hall. There was a small gap between the grating and the bottom of the doorway, and as far as Dee could see, there was distance between the bottom of the doorway and the floor of the next room.

Enough distance to hide in.

As he could hear the maniac fumbling with the lock, Dee slid underneath the iron grating, and landed with only a slight stumble on the uneven floor below. He pressed himself back up against the wall, and slapped a hand over his own mouth to quiet his heavy breathing as best as he possibly could. He could hear the sound of the heavy wooden door opening again, and the creak as the hinges strained. Those damned footsteps started up again, slow and meticulous. They got closer, and closer, and Dee closed his eyes.

“ _Here, kitty, kitty._ ” The maniac’s voice was just as distorted as it had been over the recording, and it sent chills down Dee’s spine. “ _Come here, teddy bear. Come on out, now._ ”

Dee didn’t move an inch. He’d never been so still in his life, which was especially surprising, given the stake that those words drove straight through his heart. The maniac paused for a few more seconds, and Dee started to wonder if he’d ever get the chance to breathe safely again.

“ _Fuck!_ ” The maniac swore, and while they were still terrifying, something had dropped out of their voice. “ _Fucking hell, Jesus…_ ”

It was only once Dee heard the footsteps retreating, faster now, that he dared to lower his hand and let himself catch his breath. He didn’t move from his hiding spot, didn’t dare to peek out and see where the maniac was. Not yet. He’d escaped. He’d gotten away, but only just barely. The last thing he needed was to poke his head out and find out that the maniac was still there, and it was all a ruse to get him to lower his guard down and come out.

Instead of moving, then, Dee turned over the maniac’s words in his mind. _Teddy bear_. It made him sick to think about. The way the maniac had torn into him, and then used that nickname like it was nothing…

Dee had lied before. One person out of the group knew his name.

But he had just watched that person get torn in half. 

**\-- REMY, 2:03 A.M. --**

**FIVE HOURS UNTIL DAWN**

Neither Remy or Emile had really said all that much since they left the cable car station, and Remy wasn’t sure whether or not that was a good thing. There wasn’t much to talk about that didn’t make his insides feel like they had been shoved into a blender, and really, talking about how cold it was getting seemed less like a conversation topic and more of a way to say anything to break the quiet.

He would have complained about the cold, too, if it wasn’t one of the few things keeping him awake. It was either mind-numbing cold or a burning panic setting all his senses on overdrive, and between the two, Remy would gladly take the cold. At least the wind wasn’t out to violently murder him.

Remy kept his hand tightly clasped around Emile’s, and by the way Emile was squeezing back, he didn’t want to lose Remy any more than Remy wanted to lose him. The forest felt much more sinister at night, and it was hard to tell whether it was better to be stumbling around in complete darkness, or to have his eyes adjust. He could see what was around him a bit better now, sure, but there was a creeping suspicion that he might end up seeing something that he didn’t want to see.

“How much further?” Remy asked, finally breaking the silence. “I feel like I’m going to collapse.”

“Don’t. Please don’t.” Emile said. “Shouldn’t be too much farther now, I think I saw a signpost a few minutes ago--”

Emile cut himself off with a slight yelp that was immediately drowned out by Remy’s own sudden screech of panic as a bright light suddenly switched on ten feet in front of them. After wandering around in the dark, it felt nothing short of blinding, and Remy wildly swung his arm out ahead of him, just in case anything was there.

“Woah, hey! It’s okay!” Emile said, and Remy felt his steady grip on his arm. “Just a security light. It’s alright.”

Remy let his eyes open just a crack, squinting at Emile through the light as his eyes slowly figured out how to process real light again. His face burned as he managed to look back at the source, and could easily spot the simple security light that was positioned above a staircase that led up to the now obvious tower.

“Probably motion-activated.” Emile said.

“Right.” Remy said, and pulled his arm out of Emile’s grasp. “I knew that. Totally knew that. I was just…”

He hesitated, and as he looked back at Emile, he frowned at the tiny smile that had come over Emile’s face.

“Ready to attack a potential maniac with your arm of fury?” Emile asked, and Remy sighed.

“Sure. Why not.” He said, and let go of Emile’s hand. “Let’s just get up this stupid tower and call for some help before I die of hypothermia, or whatever.”

“Okay, okay.”

Remy started up the wooden staircase first, and looked up at the tower as he climbed them. Sure, he knew the tower hadn’t been in use for a little bit, but the place looked positively ancient, like no one had been up there in decades, not just a single year or so. Rust covered so much of it that it looked more like it had been made out of rust and then had iron hastily thrown in to fill up gaps. Up above, some sort of fabric had caught on a railing and was flapping wildly in the wind, trying and failing to set itself free. Remy gulped as he reached the first platform of the tower, and the stairs turned into a single, rickety iron ladder.

Emile was right behind him, though, and after the stupidity of trying to attack a light source, he wasn’t going to let him get any more teasing leverage, even if Emile never really poked fun at him for longer than a few jabs at most. Remy walked over to the ladder, determined, and closed his fingers around the cold rung the was slightly above his head.

“Be careful, Rem.” Emile’s voice called from back by the stairs as Remy started to climb. “We don’t know how stable this thing is.”

“I’ll be fine.” Remy said. “Come on, we have to get to that radio.”

Emile said something else, but as Remy climbed higher, the wind grew stronger, and it was hard to make out whatever it was that he said. Remy didn’t let himself stop. If he stopped, he’d look down and suddenly realize how high he was on a rickety ladder in a tower that creaked dangerously with every new gust of wind, and that fear would hold him firmly in place. He wouldn’t be going down or up if he stopped now.

The cold of the rungs left his fingers a frozen red the further he climbed, and the wind snapped at his jacket, trying its best to both pull it off of him and to pull him off the ladder. He ignored both of those things, and focused only on the hole in the ceiling that the ladder led to. He pulled himself closer, and closer, and it only felt like he could properly breathe again once he had made it to the very top, and pulled himself onto flat ground in the tiny room that served as the office for whoever was on firewatch.

It was fairly small, but the windows must have been well made, because despite how strong the wind felt on the ladder, Remy couldn’t feel any of it in here. It didn’t feel nearly as old as the rest of the tower, either. Definitely a bit dusty, and emptier than it probably should have been from the neglect, but it felt like a usual office. There was a small kitchen area in the corner, outlets along the walls, a locker space, and a desk with a printer and the radio.

Emile pulled himself into the room just as Remy got to his feet and headed over to the desk, the first rays of hope he’d felt for the past hour. They had been right A radio was here, and they could use it, they could contact someone to come get them, to save them from the maniac, and they’d all be okay, they’d--

The little power button did nothing when he pressed it.

Fantastic.

“Fuck, you’re kidding me. No power?” Remy asked, and pressed the button a few more times only to get the same result. He tried pressing a button on the printer and got the same result -- no lights, no nothing. “So we came up here for nothing?”

“Well, hey. Don’t give up yet.” Emile said, and crouched down to look under the desk. “Check it out. Power lines. Maybe they just turn it off while people aren’t up here. We just have to find the source.”

Leave it to Emile to be a voice of reason. Remy took a deep breath, forcing down the wave of hopelessness that had crashed into him at the push of the button, and nodded.

“Right. You’re right.” He said, and took another brief look around the room. It was small enough where nothing could really be hidden, anyway. “Well, it’s not in here. Maybe it’s back down?”

“What about outside?” Emile asked, and pointed towards the sealed door that led out towards the balcony. “Doubt it would be very convenient for whoever’s stationed up here to have to go back down every single time they need to turn the power off.”

“Fair enough.” Remy was closer to the door, so he pulled it open and shivered as a blast of cold wind suddenly raced into the room. The balcony looked just as rickety as the rest of the tower, but when Remy actually stepped out onto it, he was surprised to find how stable it felt under his feet. Even with the wind and the railing being so close, he didn’t have much of a fear of falling off at all. “Okay, fuse box, fuse box, fuse box…”

He spotted it as he turned the corner to the other side of the building. Two little steel boxes stuck out on the side of the building, and as Remy got closer, he could see that one was labeled with “FUSE BOX” and a small lightning bolt symbol, and the other was labeled as “EMERGENCY” in red block letters, same as the box that Emile had found the axe in.

Remy opened up the fuse box first. He wasn’t exactly a whiz when it came to electrical engineering, but thankfully, he could figure out an on/off switch when he saw one. The fuse box was exactly that -- a small red lever that was facing towards off. Probably didn’t need anything more complicated than that on a fire tower. Remy flipped the switch, and his hopes immediately came back as he could see light suddenly come streaming through the windows of the little room, including a little red light switching on the radio.

“Fuck yes!” He grinned, and looked towards Emile, who had a matching smile on his face. “Nice to have something go right, yeah?”

“Definitely.” Emile agreed, and glanced over Remy’s shoulder at the box labeled EMERGENCY. “What’s in that one?”

“What’s with you and getting curious about every box labeled ‘emergency’?” Remy asked, and Emile shrugged.

“I mean, I’ve already said that I’m pretty sure we’re in an emergency.”

“Fair enough.” Remy said, and opened up the second box.

It was mostly empty, aside from a single orange flare gun. Remy took it out, his finger instinctively curling around the trigger.

“Do you think it could come in handy?”

“If our entire goal is to be found?” Emile asked. “Absolutely, yeah -- hey, don’t put your finger on the trigger like that. Not unless you’re going to shoot it.”

“Scared, babe?”

“For an hour now, yeah. I don’t think we want to let everyone on the mountain know where we are right at this exact second.”

He had a point there. 

~~**Should Remy:** ~~

~~**Keep the gun? or Give Emile the gun?** ~~

**VOTING CLOSED**

_BUTTERFLY EFFECT DISCOVERED:_

_Dee Tried to Escape -- Dee Successfully Hid From the Maniac_


	21. Psychosis: Crashing Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fall, falling, fallen.

**YOU CHOSE: GIVE EMILE THE GUN**

“Fine, then. You take it.” Remy said, and held out the flare gun to Remy with the trigger pointed in his direction.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Probably smarter anyway.” Remy shrugged. “You’re better at keeping calm than me. I’ll end up trying to shoot something in a panic and getting both of us killed.”

“You wouldn’t--” Emile started, but Remy held up a hand to cut him off.

“Babe. You know I would. Let’s just go call someone on the radio and get back to the others.”

“Alright, alright.” Emile said. Even though it felt smarter for Emile to have the gun, it still felt weird to see him with one. Sure, the axe had been a weapon, but an axe had uses beyond hurting people. And yeah, it was a flare gun, but still. Seeing Emile with something that looked like it was only meant to hurt people felt like a juxtaposition. “Let’s go.”

Remy hugged his arms around himself as the wind pulled at his jacket, and Emile led the way back inside. The door opening gave the cold just enough time to get inside the room, so while it was definitely good at shielding them from the wind, the room was colder than it had been before, and it left an air of vague dread with it. Remy made a beeline for the radio and switched it on, breathing another sigh of relief as the little light turned green.

“You know how to do this?” Emile asked.

“Not really.” Remy admitted, and reached for the dial next to where a channel number was listed. “But do you?”

“No.” Emile said, and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Guess trying is better than nothing at all.”

“Better be. Seems pretty self explanatory.” Remy said, and turned the dial.

Nothing but static came through for the first few seconds as Remy slowly moved the dial, but eventually, the static warped, and if Remy strained his ears, he could hear something that maybe, just maybe, sounded like words.

“There!” Emile said, and came up right next to Remy. He set his hands on the desk as he looked at a small, lit up gauge close to the channel button that was labeled as “signal strength”. “It went up a bit, keep turning.”

“I figured.” Remy said, sarcasm leaking through his voice. He turned the dial slightly more to the right, and--

“ _\--station for the Blackwood County ranger service. Over._ ”

“Oh, fuck yes.” Remy said, and Emile let out a small cheer beside him.

“We got it! We got it, okay, use the mic, use the mic!”

“Okay, okay, I got it--” Remy said, and reached over to press the square button that sat on the base of the microphone that sat beside the radio. “Hello? Anyone there? We need help, we need help, like, right now, uh, over?”

“ _Hello, is someone trying to contact us? Your signal is not coming through well._ ”

“Shit.” Emile muttered. “Should we try and--”

“Don’t touch that knob.” Remy said. “We might lose them entirely.”

“Fine.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m trying to get through, me and my friends, we’re stuck on Blackwood Mountain, and there’s a maniac up here with us--”

“ _You’re severely breaking up, I’m going to need you to speak calmly and slowly in order to understand._ ”

Panic was starting to build in Remy’s gut. Oh, god, what if they couldn’t hear him at all? What if they were trapped for good with their only way of calling for help broken? What could they do then, just sit and wait for a maniac to finish off the rest of them? What if--

Remy snapped out of his thoughts as a gentle hand rested on his shoulder, and he turned to see Emile, who gave him a reassuring squeeze.

“Just breathe. Keep it slow, and you’ll get through.”

“...right.” Remy nodded, and turned back to the microphone. He took a deep breath and kept going. “We’re stuck on Blackwood Mountain, near the ski lodge. There were eight of us up here, but there’s a maniac up here with us and he’s already--”

Remy’s throat closed up, but he forced himself to get the words out.

“He’s already killed one of our friends, and--”

Remy jumped as a sudden brilliant light came from outside, accompanied by a loud clunking noise.

“The fuck was that?”

Emile made his way over to the window, and the way his face seemed to drain of color did nothing to help Remy calm down.

“The motion light sensor.” He said. “Something tripped it. Probably...probably a deer.”

Remy didn’t want to mention that they hadn’t seen any deer at all on their walk up.

“ _Can you please identify yourself? Over._ ”

“I’m...my name is Remy Vargas.” Remy said. “I’m up here with a few friends, two of them are in the Sanders family, we-- shit!”

It was difficult to hear, sure, and maybe a sense of paranoia was fucking with his senses, but it definitely felt like he could hear someone making their way up the tower. It was something in the way the metal creaking noises changed oh so slightly.

Maybe it was just him, given that Emile didn’t seem to hear a thing.

“ _Alright, we read you. Please do not leave your current position, we will send helicopters to your position as early as possible, once the storm has subsided. Over._ ”

The noise from the tower seemed to stop entirely as relief flooded through Remy’s veins. Helicopters. Yeah, that would definitely work. They were going to get out of here before anyone else got hurt, they were going to be safe, it was all going to be okay.

When he turned to look at Emile, however, he didn’t seem as happy. He reached over to take the microphone from Remy, a grim kind of look over his face.

“How long is it going to take?”

Remy was getting really, really tired of the constant feeling of rising horror.

“ _...dawn, at the earliest. Stay put until dawn--”_

If the radio operator said anything else, neither Emile or Remy heard it over the sudden banging noise and the jolt of the trapdoor. Remy screeched, and Emile didn’t exactly keep quiet, either, and the microphone clattered to the floor as he dropped it. The trapdoor was shaking with every slam it endured from the other side, threatening to burst open.

“Fuck, fuck, shit, he’s here, he’s here, we’re going to die--!” Remy blurted. He was clinging so tightly to Emile’s arm that it was a wonder that he wasn’t completely cutting off his circulation.

“We’re not gonna’ die, come on!” Emile said, and pulled his arm out of Remy’s hold to run over to the set of lockers and start pulling them towards the door. “Help me block it!”

Remy’s body thankfully reacted before his brain caught up, and it felt almost as if he had blinked and he was suddenly helping Emile to push a huge metal set of lockers over a trapdoor. The banging on the door didn’t stop until they’d managed to push the lockers firmly over the door, effectively sealing out whoever was on the other side. Even without the noise, though, Remy didn’t feel any less calm, and found his way to Emile again.

“Oh my god, holy fuck--”

“You okay?”

“No, babe, I’m not okay! I’m the furthest thing from okay!” Remy said, hysteria finding its way into his voice. “There’s a killer on this mountain and he’s already killed one of us, he almost just got the two of us, and now he’s out there looking for everyone else! This is--”

Remy’s words were cut off as a loud snapping noise seemed to echo across the entire mountain, and both he and Emile turned to face the direction it came from.

One of the cables used to stabilize the tower had snapped, and was blowing wildly in the breeze.

The creaking sounds of the tower suddenly became a lot more ominous, especially when they were accompanied by several more snapping sounds, and the floor was starting to tilt.

“Oh my god, no, fuck, what’s happening--”

“Shit. Rem, grab onto something!”

Emile started running towards the side of the tower that was tilting upwards, and Remy didn’t think twice before trying to follow. The furniture inside the room was starting to slide over as the tower began to fall. Out of the corner of his eyes, Remy saw one of the outlets spark, and half a second later, the wooden table closest to it was on fire.

In front of him, or almost above him, now, Emile managed to smash one of the windows, and grabbed a hold of the bars. His fingers looked like they were bleeding, but he didn’t seem to care much, and frankly, neither did Remy. The floor was nearly tilted 90 degrees, and Remy launched himself off of the floor as best he could to try to reach up and grab a hold of another window-- and missed.

A scream launched from his throat as he fell, crashing into the other side of the room with such force he was surprised he didn’t break the glass on impact. With the glass there, however, Remy had a front row seat to exactly where the tower was falling.

Behind the tower was a huge split in the mountain, one that led down so far that Remy couldn’t see the bottom. And the tower was falling right into it.

“Remy!”

“Shit, shit, shit--!” Remy screamed as he tried to scramble back from the window, but there was really nowhere else to go. He looked up, only to see the radio, suspended by the cord keeping it plugged into the wall.

At least, he got to see it for five seconds before gravity took over, and the radio pulled away from the plug and came crashing down into the window beside Remy, just narrowly missing him.

It didn’t seem to matter if it missed him or not, though, because between his body weight and the radio, the glass couldn’t hold up anymore. The radio went straight through it, and the impact sent shockwaves of cracks through the rest of the windows. Remy could feel the glass giving before he even had a chance to do anything about it, and he could vaguely hear Emile’s screams mixed in with his own as the glass shattered and sent him falling into the void below.

He got lucky. Luckier than he had any right to be when in his panicked fall, his fingers managed to grab a hold of the railing that had been around the outside of the porch. Something in his shoulder definitely popped as his body jolted from falling to dangling, but Remy was alive. Nowhere near safe, but alive.

“Em!” Remy screamed, as if Emile could do anything from his place, dangling precariously above him.

“Shit!” Emile yelled, and Remy could barely hear his voice over the sound of metal creaking.

The fire tower slid almost perfectly into the crack in the earth, and Remy clung to the railing as the collision shook the whole tower.

He really, really hoped this was a nightmare. 

**\-- EMILE, 2:43 A.M. --**

The tower had flipped completely upside down as it had fallen into the crack in the mountain. The fire from the outlet had spread, but the only lucky thing about that was that it was staying relatively small and around the outer edges of the tower. Emile was still clinging to the window, and every time he thought the tower had finished falling, it lurched again, and dropped another foot. It wasn’t going to hold on forever, and neither was his boyfriend.

Emile gritted his teeth, and started to move. He took cautious steps towards where he’d seen Remy fall, and stayed close to the walls in case the tower gave and he needed to grab onto something. He could hear Remy’s voice off a little ways in the distance.

“Em? Em, please, where are you?”

“I’m right here!” Emile called back. He’d never heard Remy sound so helpless before, and it was chilling him more than the cold was. “I’m right here, Rem. Right here, I’m not going to leave you.”

The wall that Remy had fallen through had taken the bulk of the impact on the fall, and left a lot of cracks wide enough for Emile to slip through. He could see Remy much more clearly now. He was clinging to what had once been the railing so tightly that his fingers had turned white, and the angle that the railing had bent at gave him footholds, too. He could climb up the railing if he needed to, but as the building lurched again and Emile grabbed a hold of one of the splintering pieces of wood, he watched his boyfriend tense.

Remy couldn’t move. Emile could see it in the panic in his eyes.

“Hey, it’s gonna’ be okay.” Emile said, and started to inch across the dangerous unstable remains of the balcony towards Remy.

“You gotta’ get me out.” Remy said. “Oh god, please, Em, you gotta’ help--”

“I’m going to. This thing is just kind of unstable.” Emile said. “I don’t want to take it down by making a wrong step.”

“Okay. Okay, okay, okay.” Remy repeated, over and over again, more than a touch hysterical. “Right, right, it’s unstable, you can’t move too fast, oh, fuck, we’re gonna’ die--”

“We’re not going to die.” Emile said firmly. “I won’t let that happen.”

“What do you mean, you won’t let that happen?” Remy asked. “We’re on a fire tower that’s basically falling into the void right now, Em, I don’t see how you can stop it!”

“Don’t yell at me right now, I’m trying to concentrate!”

“Oh, oh, right. I can’t stress you out right now, can I? It’s not like I’m about to fall to my death or anything!”

“That’s not helping--”

“Neither are you right now!”

Emile stopped and took a deep breath. Taking out their nerves on each other wasn’t going to help anything. He needed to keep his head on straight if they were going to get out of this at all.

“Okay.” He said and got slightly closer to the edge. He reached his hand out towards Remy, and it looked like, with a bit of stretching, he might be able to reach him if Remy tried to grab his hand. “Here, take my hand.”

Remy hesitated for a few seconds, but then started to reach out towards him, his hand shaking. Emile held his breath as he stretched his arm further, and their fingertips just barely brushed, and--

Remy screamed as the building lurched again with a much louder creaking noise than before, and as his hand clamped back down on the railing, Emile dropped to the ground to keep his balance better.

This time, the tower didn’t stop moving completely. It was moving much, much slower than it had before, sure, but it was now slowly sliding down the mountain, and Emile wasn’t sure how much longer they had until the sides of the hole gave way and left the tower in free fall.

“Shit, okay.” He muttered, and started looking around for another way out. Maybe if he took his weight off the tower and got to a more stable place, he could better help Remy from there and maybe lessen some of the strain on the tower, even if it was only by a little bit.

“What? What are you doing?” Remy asked, looking up at him with panicked eyes. “What are you looking for, Em, help me!”

“I’m going to!” Emile said, and there. A little ways behind and below Remy, there was a hole in the side of the mountain. It looked suspiciously like it had once been a mineshaft, and while it definitely didn’t look like it was in working condition, it looked much more stable than the tower itself. He could probably reach Remy from there, if he tried.

“Okay. I’m gonna jump to that mineshaft.” Emile said, pointing towards it. And I can help you down from there.” 

“What?” Remy shrieked. “No, Em, you can’t! You’re gonna’ miss, or you won’t be able to reach me, or...you can’t just leave me to die!”

“I’m not leaving you to die--”

“Yes, you are!” Remy insisted, and stuck his hand back out towards him. “Look, if you help me up, we can...we can both jump there together, okay? Just don’t leave me here, please!”

Emile looked between Remy’s hand and the open mineshaft, and the creaking of the tower felt all the more ominous. 

~~**Should Emile:** ~~

~~**Save Remy? or Jump to safety?** ~~

**VOTING CLOSED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy holidays, here's some trauma
> 
> quick note: some of these chapters might get a little bit shorter as the space between decisions gets a bit smaller!


	22. Psychosis: Candles and Dolls and Ghosts, Oh My

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another trip down into the depths.

**YOU CHOSE: JUMP TO SAFETY** ****

The creaking of the tower was becoming more violent and the tower itself was sliding downwards, inch by inch, getting faster by the second. Emile’s self-preservation kicked in, and he backed up just a few steps.

“What are you doing, Em, you have to--”

“Trust me!” Emile shouted, and broke into a quick sprint, pushing off what was left of the balcony at the last second. The free fall made his heart lodge in his throat, and while it felt like it was in slow motion, it was only half a second until Emile slammed into the opening in the side of the cavern, his legs and lower torso dangling over the edge as both his hands and feet scrambled to find a steady hold in the craggy wall and floor. His heart pounded in his ears so loudly that he almost didn’t hear the scraping of the tower against the walls, but he would have had to be deaf to miss Remy’s screams as the tower finally slid too far down to be held back anymore.

The wind that the tower had been partially blocking came screaming back into the cavern and Emile heard the distant crashing of metal below him. The entire cavern shook from the impact, and what little grip Emile had was jolted just enough to make him fall a few more inches before he could manage to get a hold of it again.

He refused to look down and gritted his teeth. Emile was not planning on dying here tonight, definitely not because of a stupid mistake like missing a landing by a few inches. He slowly lifted his right leg up, searching for anything that could serve as a foothold higher up. His foot found a small section of the rock that stuck out just slightly, and he didn’t waste any more time before pushing himself up until he could lay flat on his stomach on the floor of the opening. He only let himself take a breath when he finally pulled himself the rest of the way up, and was once again on mostly solid ground.

That breath was short lived as his eyes caught the sight of the void that seemed to stretch out forever below him. In the distance, he could see the flames he’d managed to avoid growing larger, and he could feel nausea building in his stomach.

“Remy!” His scream echoed all throughout the cave, and the echo was the only response he got. His breathing picked up, shallow and panicked, and he couldn’t stop himself from collapsing to his knees. He just barely missed falling back out into the cave as he dropped, but he couldn’t find it in himself to truly care as he stared down at the distant flames where his boyfriend’s corpse was bound to be trapped. “Shit...shit, fuck, Rem…” 

Emile was suddenly jolted out of his spiral as he spotted something moving in the corner of his vision. As he turned his head to get a look, whatever it was darted out of his line of sight entirely. Not that it would have mattered either way -- in the half a second glance Emile got, the darkness and the distance kept him from getting any sort of good look at what it was.

What _was_ that?

**\-- PATTON, 2:03 A.M. --**

“Not in there?”

“No.” Patton’s voice shook ever so slightly as he closed the door, stepping back from it. Logan’s face was a mask of calm, but when Patton looked in his eyes, he could see his own dread reflected in them. They’d searched nearly the entire lodge. Every bedroom, closet, and bathroom -- hell, Patton had even looked under couches, as if his friends could hide under them. There was no sign of Virgil, Roman, or Dee anywhere.

“Shit.” Logan muttered. “Okay, uh…”

“What are we gonna’ do now?” Patton asked. “If we can’t find them--”

“We’ll find them.” Logan cut him off. “They have to be somewhere. They--”

He paused, and the fear behind his eyes momentarily turned to a strange kind of hope.

“The basement. We haven’t checked the basement, right?” Logan asked, and immediately started down the hallway towards the stairs, without even waiting for Patton to catch up. “They must’ve gone down there. Plenty of places to hide.”

“Logan, wait!”

“I can’t wait.” Logan said as Patton ran down the hall, catching up with him just as he started heading down the stairs. “They could be in trouble.”

“Please don’t say that.” Patton said. His feet felt unsteady as he quickly descended the staircase. His entire body felt unsteady, really, and had since the old barn. Some of the shock was wearing off by now, and he felt a little bit more in his right mind, but not by much.

Logan was worrying him, though. He’d known Logan for years now, and he liked to think he knew him well enough to know when he was in distress. Sure, it wasn’t that hard to assume he was now, thanks to what they’d already seen, but Logan had a strange way of unraveling. To anyone else, he seemed almost inhumanely calm under any sort of stress, but Patton knew better. When Logan was stressed, he had a tendency to laser-focus on a single goal. One thing that he could keep his mind on and forcibly block out everything else. It seemed healthy to anyone else, but Logan had a tendency to take that laser focus to the extreme. Like the time he was awake for almost forty-eight hours writing and revising a paper for AP Lang, and only stopped for necessities like food and the bathroom.

If he got that way over a simple academic stress, Patton was very nervous to see what handling witnessing murder would look like. Especially when that murder involved his best friend.

And as if Patton didn’t already have a mile long list of things to worry about, at that very moment, all the lights in the house went off.

Patton yelped, and had practically launched himself at Logan before he even registered he was doing it. He gripped Logan’s arm, and in that moment, he found that he didn’t particularly care what Logan thought about it. He couldn’t see, and they were potentially stuck on a mountain where a murderous psychopath was on the loose. He needed to know he wasn’t alone.

“Oh my god, oh my god, why--”

“Someone must’ve flipped the power.” Logan said, and Patton barely see him reaching into his pocket for something as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. “And the fuse box is in the basement. Maybe they’re trying to throw the guy off. Make him think that no one’s home.”

“Or maybe the maniac is down there trying to put us in the dark.” Patton pointed out, right as Logan gave up looking in his pockets and swore under his breath. “What?”

“Remus let me borrow a lighter earlier.” He said. “I forgot I gave it back to him. I thought we could use it for light--”

Almost as if on cue, a candle sitting on a little hallway table that Patton hadn’t noticed before suddenly burst to life, and Patton shrieked again, nearly letting go of Logan as he jumped back.

“Oh my god, I hate this.” Patton said, and moved closer to Logan as he kept his eyes on the candle. “That just lit itself, right? I’m not crazy?”

“Definitely seems that way.” Logan said, and perhaps Patton was imagining it, but Logan actually sounded a little shaken. “Come on. We need to check the basement.”

Patton’s mouth felt dry as he caught sight of the door leading down to the basement. Sure, it was dark already, but the moonlight had managed to sneak in through the windows of the lodge and his eyes were adjusting. The tiny windows towards the ceiling in the basement, however, left hardly any room for light, which left the staircase down to the basement feeling even more ominous than the lodge did.

“Uh...I’m not sure about this, Lo…”

“We don’t have a choice here.” Logan said. “They could be down there, in trouble, and we can’t just leave them alone. I’m not doing that again.”

A deep pit of guilt opened in Patton’s stomach.

“Logan--”

“Come _on_.” Logan said, and pulled him towards the stairs without another word.

Patton stayed quiet as they carefully made their way down to the basement, partially because he didn’t want to talk about last year any more than Logan probably did, and partially because he was afraid to make a noise. Anyone could be down there, and Patton didn’t know what else to do but silently pray that it was their missing friends.

The basement felt chillier, darker, and quieter than he remembered. The shelves felt ominous as they towered above him, promising plenty of potential hiding spots for any maniacs looking for two more victims. Patton squeezed Logan’s arm as they ventured further into the darkness. Logan pressed on, and seemed to grow more determined by the second.

Even with that determination, though, Patton wasn’t the only one who stopped dead in his tracks as the two of them turned a corner and came face to face with a dollhouse that Patton was fairly sure he’d never seen before. It was sitting on a table at the end of the small corridor made up by the shelves, and it was so tall that with the added height from the table, the top of it reached Patton’s forehead. Patton had only been down to the basement once that night, but he had the sickening feeling that he probably would have noticed it before.

“The hell?” Logan muttered, speaking Patton’s thoughts almost exactly.

“That wasn’t here before, was it?” Patton asked, and Logan shook his head.

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think the twins were ever really big on dolls when they were kids, so I don’t see any reason for them to have a dollhouse -- what are you doing?”

Patton had let go of Logan’s arm, and was cautiously approaching the dollhouse. He wasn’t sure what he was afraid of, exactly. Even a creepy dollhouse was just a dollhouse, but something told him that someone wanted the two of them to see. He crouched down slightly to peek through the window, and though it was a bit difficult to see, he could make out the vague outlines of several dolls placed inside.

“Patton?”

“I’m just looking.” Patton said, and felt along the front of the dollhouse to find the place where it opened up. “Dollhouses...they don’t just appear out of thin air, right? Maybe someone wanted us to see it.”

Patton managed to crack the front of the dollhouse open, and nearly jumped out of his skin as the dollhouse was suddenly illuminated. He didn’t have time to catch a glimpse of what was inside as he whipped around, only to see Logan standing with a newly found flashlight in his hand, looking slightly apologetic.

“Found it on the shelf.” He explained. “I figured it was better than hunting around in the dark.”

Patton opened his mouth to agree, but instead, a shriek of panic launched out of his mouth as he spotted something moving past the entrance to the little corridor behind Logan. A small figure, dressed completely in dirtied white clothes, walked past the entrance and seemed to completely vanish into thin air as Logan turned to face whatever it was, only to find the room empty.

“What the hell, Patton?”

“I saw -- I don’t know what that was, but I saw something!” Patton said, pointing back down the hall. “I swear! Someone was walking, some kid, and he...oh my god, I think it was a ghost, or something--”

“Woah, woah. Slow down.” Logan said, and reached out to rest a steadying hand on Patton’s shoulders. “There’s no such thing as ghosts, Patton. You know that.”

“I saw--”

“Look, your brain is fried. My brain is fried. You’re probably just seeing things because we’re both stressed out and scared. We just need to find our friends and get out of here before anyone else gets hurt.”

Patton stared back down the hallway. It was empty now, but it had seemed so real before. He’d seen something, clear as day, walking past the corridor. Some kid. Some little boy. And sure, maybe it had been a trick of his panicked brain, but he could’ve sworn that the kid was there.

Still, he relented. If he was going crazy, he’d have to worry about it later. When they were out of danger.

“Yeah...yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about.” Logan said, and he glanced back over at the dollhouse, and another look of dread came over his face. “But there may be something to worry about.”

Patton turned around and felt his stomach sink as the flashlight illuminated what was inside.

There were nine dolls in total, with seven in the bottom room that was set up to look like a living room, and two placed in the top floor, haphazardly lying across a bed and a floor. Six of the seven in the living room were partially hidden behind the furniture, and the seventh one was in the middle, but none of that was what was unsettling to Patton. What was unsettling was that each of the dolls was painted, and each of them looked like one of his friends. He could see one that looked exactly like him, with bright blonde curls and blue button eyes, hiding behind a couch close to the back of the wall. One of the dolls lying upstairs looked like Logan, complete with glasses and everything. As Patton looked at each doll, he could put a name to each face. There was Remy, Emile, Virgil, Roman, Dee, Remus…

The one in the center of the living room was Thomas.

Patton suddenly felt like he was going to throw up.

“It’s the prank.” He murmured. “That’s...that’s exactly where I was, and you and Remus are upstairs because you were both asleep, and that’s Thomas in the middle--”

“Shit.”

“Who set this up?” Patton asked, his voice strained. “Who would...it had to be someone who was there, they wouldn’t know if they weren’t!”

“Maybe this isn’t the first time the maniac has killed on this mountain.” Logan said. “Maybe he was watching us the whole time, and now he’s trying to get into our heads.”

“By setting up a dollhouse?”

“I’m not going to pretend to understand how a psychopath works. That’s Emile’s field, not mine.”

If the psychopath had done this to get into their heads, Patton felt like he had definitely got what he wished. It felt like Patton couldn’t take his eyes off the scene, the guilt rushing back into him all at once as he watched the Thomas doll. He really had just sat there, hadn’t he? Hidden away behind a couch and let the others scare Thomas out into the cold, dark woods, all alone. He’d laughed right alongside them. Sure, he had felt bad afterwards and stayed behind to wait for them to come back, but he never thought to go after them, or even check if they were actually back after he’d fallen asleep. He failed them. He failed them, and now they were dead --

Out of nowhere, the Thomas doll’s neck seemed to snap up to look Patton directly in the eyes. Patton screamed and stumbled backward, and right as he did, the dollhouse swung shut again completely of its own accord. Even Logan yelped, and just barely managed to catch Patton before Patton could fall backwards and hit his head on something.

“I hate this.” Patton said, his breathing shallow and quick. “I want to go home, Logan, please, let’s just go--”

“We can’t leave.” Logan said, and when a small, frightened whimper escaped Patton, his voice only became steadier. “Patton, we can’t. Virgil, Roman, and Dee could be down here. They could be in trouble. They could need our help, they could be facing the maniac right now. Or worse, they don’t even know the danger they’re in. We are not leaving without them.”

“But what if they’re not down here at all?” Patton asked. “What...what if this has all been a trap to lure us down here so the maniac can finish us off? What about that?”

“If it means helping our friends, it’s a risk we have to take.” Logan said. “I’ve already lost my best friend tonight because I let him run off on his own, and I am not leaving anyone else behind again, alright?”

“I don’t want to die down here!” Patton cried. He felt like a coward for admitting it, but it was the truth. Whether it was by some weird ghost or a maniac, he felt like he was going to meet some kind of nasty end down here, and he didn’t want to take another step closer to it.

“Well, I don’t want them to die!” Logan said. “So you can go upstairs if you want, but I’m staying down here to find the others.”

“No! No, no, no, please don’t leave me!” Patton said, and reached up to grab Logan’s hand, squeezing it tightly. “Please, Lo, don’t leave me alone here, please--”

“I’m…” Logan stopped, sighed, and squeezed his hand back. “I’m not going to leave you, Patton, I’m...look, we just need to find them, okay? Please. If something goes wrong, we’ll leave, I promise.”

Patton wasn’t totally sure if they’d be able to leave if something went wrong, but now the image of Thomas was stuck in his head and dragging all his guilt back to the surface. He hadn’t known that Thomas would be in trouble, and still, the guilt of leaving him and Joan for dead kept him awake at night. If the others were in trouble, and he left them behind knowing that...he wasn’t sure how long it would be before he would sleep again.

“...okay.” He murmured. “Okay, just...just be careful.”

“I always am.” Logan promised, and for a moment, Patton almost believed him.

And then he heard the scream.

Both of their heads snapped up as a scream suddenly echoed through the basement, and one of the boxes on the shelf came crashing down, scattering old books across the floor of the corridor.

“How does…who pushed that box?” Patton asked, but Logan was already pulling him back down the corridor.

“No time.” He said. “Someone’s in danger. We have to find them, now--”

“Logan--”

Another scream, only this time, it sounded slightly distorted, and almost younger, like a child’s scream. It sounded eerily familiar to Patton, and even Logan seemed to hesitate slightly. The first one had sounded like one of their friends, but this one didn’t at all.

“What the hell?” Logan muttered, and glanced around the basement, looking for some kind of source. “What is that?”

“I don’t like this.” Patton muttered, and as if the universe wanted to make the situation even worse, he saw it again. The same small figure, same dirtied clothes, walking in the distance. He appeared almost translucent as Patton watched him, panic closing around his throat and cutting off his ability to even scream.

Thankfully this time, Logan noticed the look on his face, and whipped around just in time to see the figure before it disappeared behind a shelf.

“What the--”

“You saw it.” Patton said. He felt a strange mix of relief and panic at the same time. Logan saw it. He saw it. Patton wasn’t going crazy.

But if he wasn’t going crazy, that only left one option.

“I don’t...I don’t know what I just saw.” Logan said.

“No, no, I see the look on your face, you saw it!” Patton said. “You saw it, you saw him, it’s a ghost, and...and, oh, god, it looks like Thomas, or, or maybe Joan--”

“Christ, Patton, what do you think, they followed us down from the seance?”

“I don’t know!” Patton shouted, no longer thinking about the potential that the maniac was down here with them. “All I know is that I’m seeing a ghost that looks a lot like some kid, and sounds familiar, and you just saw it too, so it’s not in my head!”

“Ghosts aren’t real, Pat--”

“Then what is that? And who was talking to us at the seance?”

“I don’t know!” Logan shouted, and at that moment, a loud creak of a door opening made the both of them turn.

An old door, partially blocked by a shelving unit that had fallen down, had swung open all by itself. Shattered glass and wine spread out across the floor leading to it, and Patton suddenly had a higher appreciation for what Logan had said about possibly seeing things. He was so panicked about the ghost, he hadn’t even noticed the mess. The door led into an even darker room than before, and Patton hadn’t even thought that was possible.

“...should we go through it?” Patton asked, as Logan stooped down to get a better look at the fallen shelf.

“Maybe one of them came through this way.” Logan said. “Shelves don’t just fall over. Maybe someone was being chased, and had to do something to put up a barricade.”

“Do you think...maybe the ghost is leading us to the others?” Patton asked, keeping his eyes on the doorway. If it was Thomas or Joan, it would make sense. Maybe they were trying to help.

“I don’t know.” Logan said, a defeated tone to his words. “All I’m saying is if we’re looking for the trail of someone in danger, this looks pretty close.”

It didn’t really matter if it was the ghost leading them that way or the damage, both signs were pointing to the door. Patton sucked in a sharp breath, and nodded.

“Let’s go.”

The two of them carefully stepped through the mess, avoiding the shattered glass as best as they could manage. The temperature seemed to drop about ten degrees as they passed over the threshold, and the architecture seemed to go further into the past right alongside it. The room felt old, much older than the lodge itself, and abandoned. The walls were crumbling stone, the floor was dirt underneath him, and the boxes and boxes of stuff surrounding them were either moldy or covered in water stains. There were a few more tables and shelves in here, too, but they were made out of splintering wood, and looked dangerous to the touch. Strangely enough, though, as Logan shined the flashlight around, Patton’s eyes caught sight of a box that seemed newer, and out of place. Huh.

“There’s the door.” Logan said, the beam of light landing on an open doorway that led into even more darkness. “Come on, we should keep moving.”

Logan started walking towards the doorway, but Patton couldn’t help but hesitate, his eyes still lingering on the box. If everything else in here was old and rotting, why wasn’t that one? 

~~**Should Patton:** ~~

~~**Follow Logan? or Investigate?** ~~

**VOTING CLOSED**

_Butterfly Effect Discovered:  
_

_Emile Jumped to Safety -- Emile Saw the Mystery from a Distance_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one's a little bit later than usual, the combination of current events and some crazy stuff happening in my personal life kind of left me with a busy week, hope you didn't mind the wait!


	23. Psychosis: A Second Chance to Make The Same Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan has already sacrificed for Patton once.

**YOU CHOSE: FOLLOW LOGAN**

Logan was already halfway through the door, and the last thing Patton needed was to be left alone with a killer on the loose. Whatever was in the box, it wasn’t important. What was important was finding their friends and getting out of there before anyone else died. Patton quickly wound his way back through the maze of boxes back to Logan’s side, only to realize that there was a reason Logan hadn’t just walked through.

“Here, hold this.” Logan said, and handed the flashlight over to Patton, allowing him to illuminate the two-foot drop from the threshold of the door to the floor of the next room. The floor looked like it was covered in gravel, and if Patton aimed the flashlight at a few places, there were tiny spots of something dark red splattered over the stones, something Patton did not want to think about.

Logan got down on the floor and swung his legs over the ledge before he pushed off, landing on the floor below steadily. He didn’t waste a second before turning back around towards Patton, and holding a hand out towards him.

“Come on, your turn.”

Right. Patton had to keep going, too.

Patton mimicked Logan’s movements, and tried to ignore how the cold of the stone floor seemed to seep straight through his jeans as he sat down. Logan took his hand right before he pushed off, and kept him from falling as his shaky feet hit the floor. The gravel felt unsteady under his feet, and he squeezed Logan’s hand.

His grip only tightened as he got a chance to actually look around the new room they were in.

It wasn’t so much a room as it was a slightly large hallway. The floors were old, cracking concrete with rubble littered across them. Rotting wooden pillars lined the walls -- or at least Patton assumed they once had, as most of them were splintering apart or had already fallen over. What little paint remained on the walls looked as though it had been peeling for decades, or maybe closer to a century. There were a few rusty dark light fixtures still managing to hang on to the ceiling, but all of the lightbulbs had long since popped, leaving only the occasional shard of glass that had managed to stick it out for the long run. Doors that matched the pillars lined the hallway, and were decorated with iron grating that were just as rusty as the light fixtures above.

“What the hell?” Patton murmured, and he felt Logan squeeze his hand back.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“What is this place?”

“It’s like...it’s almost like this is an entire other hotel, underneath the lodge.” Logan said, and carefully reached out with his free hand to run his fingers over the nearest piece of iron grating. “Like something that’s been lost to time.”

“It feels like we’re stuck in a horror movie.” Patton said. “Are we stuck in a horror movie?”

“Stay close and let’s hope not.” Logan said, and to Patton’s surprise, he didn’t let go of his hand. He kept a tight grip on him as he cautiously started down the hall, and while every single bone in Patton’s body wanted to run in the other direction, he instead found himself following.

He would be safe with Logan. Logan was smart, Logan was careful, Logan would not get the two of them killed. Patton had to believe that. It would be the only thing that kept him from abandoning more of his friends on the mountain, as much as it made him sick to think about.

“Do you see anything?” Patton asked, keeping his voice just a touch louder than a whisper. Sure, they were alone, but Patton couldn’t help but feel like being too loud would alert all sorts of horrible things to their presence, and really turn their situation into a movie.

“Not much.” Logan said. “One of the doors looks like it was an old elevator shaft, but aside from that, it’s just the same thing, over and over again.”

“Like a maze?”

“Kind of.” Logan admitted. “But I don’t think the doors all lead to different paths, I think they’re just rooms. Like I said, it’s kind of like an old hotel.”

“I hate it.”

“Yeah, I know you do. I’m not exactly a fan, either.”

Understatement of the year.

Patton kept his eyes firmly towards the floor, and let Logan lead him through the hall. If he listened carefully, he could swear he heard tiny things crawling around the place, and the last thing he needed was to look up, see a spider web, and get confirmation that spiders were being added into this nightmare on top of everything else. Logan could handle things. Patton just had to be quiet and follow, and as long as he kept his eyes on the floor, he wouldn’t trip and fall.

“Oh my god.”

The plan of keeping his eyes down was immediately shattered as Logan suddenly let go of his hand. Patton finally looked up to see that the hallway had finally opened up into a much bigger room, one that looked almost like a kind of abandoned medical lab. The floors shifted from cold concrete to what looked like solid metal, and from where Patton was standing, he could see a couple of metal tables that resembled the ones that sat in the soup kitchen that he’d spent most of his student service learning hours in. It felt almost familiar. Like the face of a friend he’d had in kindergarten popping up in the middle of a nightmare.

“Patton, don’t look.”

“Why can’t I--”

Patton turned his head to look towards Logan, and immediately felt the bile rise in his throat. From one angle, the room seemed like an unassuming old medical lab, or maybe some kind of kitchen. But from the other angle, where Logan was unsuccessfully trying to turn him away from, there were huge meathooks dangling from the ceiling. From what Patton could tell, they weren’t rusted at all.

Was hard to tell under the blood and rotting meat still hanging there, though.

Patton clapped a hand over his mouth, both to block out the awful smell and to keep himself from immediately throwing up and adding to their list of problems. He stumbled backward, towards the better half of the room, with Logan following him. Right as they were out of range of the hallway, though, two huge hospital style doors that Patton hadn’t noticed on either side of the door swung shut, shutting them inside. Logan swore, and nearly ran right into one of the tables as he jumped.

“Okay, I can handle a lot, but that...that is repulsive.” Logan said, and glanced back to meet Patton’s eyes. “Patton?”

Patton didn’t say a word. He didn’t trust his stomach. He just shook his head rapidly, and broke his eyes away from the sight in front of them.

“On the bright side, that is definitely too old to be any of our friends.” Logan said, and Patton quickly shook his head again, hoping that the message would get across. Not. Helping. “Right. Come on, the sooner we get out of this room, the better. There’s stairs back here, let’s go.”

Anything to get out of this room, yes. Away from the smell and the blood and the terrifying sense of familiarity mixed with disgust. That would be good.

Patton kept his eyes solely on Logan as Logan walked briskly towards the set of stairs in the back. He didn’t stop to look at the contents of small group of jars that sat at the end of one of the tables, but he couldn’t ignore everything, as much as he might’ve liked to. And he certainly couldn’t ignore the photographs that were taped up on the wall next to the stairs.

It was them. All eight of them, random photos of them. Patton could spot one of Virgil from what looked like tenth grade, at a lunch table next to Remus and Janus, with Virgil flipping off the camera. One was a selfie he had taken with Roman after getting through a particularly rough test. Remy, Emile and Logan in study hall, where Logan was clearly trying to take the camera away from someone. There were about ten photos in all of all of them, and in every single one, Remus’ eyes were violently crossed out in white.

“What is this?” Logan asked, and it was rare to hear him sound genuinely bewildered. “Some kind of hit list? What the fuck?”

Patton looked down the stairs. They were dark, just like everything else here, but the pictures next to them made them feel all the more sinister. They were walking deeper and deeper into whatever the maniac had set up for them, and Patton suddenly felt a strange kind of determination rise up in his chest.

“No.” He said, finally breaking his silence. “No, I’m not going down there. I am not continuing this nightmare.”

“Patton--” Logan started, and Patton cut him off before he could.

“No, I can’t do this anymore.” He said, and took a step back from the staircase. “Rotting meat and ghosts and hit lists of our friends, I… I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to go back upstairs, and wait for Remy and Emile.”

“We can’t do that and you know that. What if Dee--”

“What if the maniac has set all this up just to lure us in deeper, Logan? What about that?” Patton asked. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t go down there. I won’t. I hate this, and I want it to end.”

Logan opened his mouth again, probably to argue. It wouldn’t have mattered what he said. Patton’s own self-preservation was kicking in at this point, and the hit list had been the icing on top of the cake. Someone was out there to kill them, and for all Patton knew, they were walking straight into his trap to do just that. Patton didn’t want to die here, stuck underground in a place no one knew about. They’d never find the two of them, and they’d end up as just another missing person story, dead somewhere no one could find them. Just like Joan. Just like Thomas.

“ _Logan? Patton, anyone? Let me out of here!_ ”

Patton’s thoughts stopped completely in their tracks as Dee’s voice, distant and panicked, suddenly echoed up from the staircase.

“Holy shit.” Logan muttered, and took a step closer towards the staircase. “We found him.”

Dee being trapped down in the maze of rotting wood and cracking concrete suddenly didn’t feel like so much of wild goose chase. Patton didn’t hesitate, and neither did Logan. The two of them ran as fast as they could down the stairs, and the further down they went, the clearer Dee’s voice became.

“ _NO! Turn it off! Let me out of here!_ ”

Patton wanted to shout for him. He wanted to shout and let Dee know that it was okay, they were coming, they were going to get out of there alive and live another day. But reassuring Dee meant alerting the maniac, and it wouldn’t be much of a rescue if both he and Logan got caught before they could even get to their friend.

As they came to the bottom of the stairs, the screaming suddenly cut off, and Patton’s stomach lurched. There was a single, iron door that stood at the bottom of the stairs, and the sight of it made both he and Logan stop in their tracks.

The bottom of the door was streaked with blood.

“Oh god, oh geez, oh god…” Patton said, and once again felt the urge to vomit.

“It could be Dee’s.” Logan said, and looked back at Patton with a grim kind of expression. “We have to get in there.”

“I hate that you’re right.” Patton said. A minute ago, Dee felt more like a wild goose chase than anything else. They had to find him, yes, but they weren’t even sure he was in the basement. Patton could have left then. Left and assumed he was somewhere else. But now, he’d heard the scream. His friend was in there. His friend was in danger. His friend needed him.

Logan went for the door first. He slowly turned the handle, and pulled it open with a slight grunt of effort.

“Fuck, this thing is heavy.” He muttered, and glanced back at Patton. “Come on, help me open this.”

Patton nodded, and between the two of them, they managed to hold the door open for long enough to squeeze through. It slammed back shut the second they let go, a sound that made Patton flinch.

The room they were in now was huge. The floors had changed to dirt, and Patton could see thick particles of dust in the beam of the flashlight. Several pieces of furniture were scattered across the room that all appeared to be ancient and splintering, just like every other thing they had encountered in the basement. The thing that most caught his attention, though, was what his flashlight beam had landed on. There was a chair with its back turned towards the door, and a human figure was sitting in it, dressed in Dee’s clothes.

“Oh my god.” Patton breathed, and abandoned all sense of caution as he ran up to the chair. “Oh god, oh my god, Dee? Dee, hey, it’s us, it’s Patton and Logan, Dee--”

Patton cut himself off as he reached forward to spin the chair around, and instead of finding Dee, he instead found a blank mannequin, dressed in the exact same outfit Dee had on earlier that night, aside from one change. The mannequin’s face had been covered by a terrifying clown mask, one that kind of resembled the same one that Remus had used to scare Patton a few Halloweens ago.

“Oh, god.” Patton said, and stumbled backwards, nearly running into Logan as he did. “Oh my god, what is this?”

“Fucked up, that’s what it is.” Logan said, and his voice sounded like he was in some kind of horrified awe. “Where the hell is Dee if he’s not here?”

“This is crazy.” Patton said. The panic was starting to set back in now that both the determination and the adrenaline had time to fade away. He reached up to hold his own face in his hands, almost as if he could block out everything else. “This is crazy, this is crazy, this--”

Logan suddenly yelped, and Patton screamed as he turned around just in time to see him slump backward, a respiratory mask being held to his face by a tall man in stained, torn overalls and an almost completely white mask, save for black, scratched out eyes and other black details that made it resemble a skull. Logan fell to the floor, totally unconscious, and panic completely took Patton over as the masked face suddenly turned to him.

“No! No, no, no, get away, don’t--!”

Patton didn’t have a chance to finish his thought. He could only struggle as the maniac grabbed him as if he weighed no more than a ragdoll, and yanked him forward to shove the respiratory mask over his nose and mouth. The world went foggy as Patton was forced to breathe in the smoke, and the last thing Patton saw before he fell unconscious was the flashlight hitting the floor, and shining across Logan’s body. 

**\-- LOGAN, 3:11 A.M --**

His head was swimming in the exact same way it had after he’d gotten his wisdom teeth taken out last year, but strangely, without the same kind of disconnect. He felt like hell, yes, but there was a strange kind of clarity to it.

A clarity Logan wished he didn’t have as he realized that his right arm was chained down to the wooden chair he was sitting on, and his legs were firmly strapped to the legs of the chair.

Shit.

His eyes flew open, and he found himself seated at the wooden table in the center of the room that he’d seen as he and Patton first entered, in their frenzy to find Dee. Patton was sitting across from him. Both of his arms were tied down, and his head hung limply from his neck, still clearly unconscious. A single black pistol was resting innocently on the table in front of him, and as Logan looked around to try and gain more from his surroundings, he could see a video camera a few feet away from them, with a small, blinking red light.

That couldn’t be good.

“Fuck, shit…” He muttered, and tried to struggle, pulling at both the ties around his legs and the one at his arm with his free hand, but not a single one of them budged an inch. Whoever this guy was, he had practice at keeping people where he wanted them, and the thought made Logan feel sick.

He stopped struggling as he heard a soft groan from across the table, and looked up to see Patton stirring, ever so slightly.

“Patton? Patton, wake up. Wake up, please.” Logan urged, and leaned forward. He couldn’t quite reach Patton with his free hand, but Patton had to know he was trying, at the very least. “Come on, Patton, wake up.”

Logan could hear Patton crying before words even left his mouth.

“What is this…?” Patton asked, and he sounded almost too exhausted to be panicked, like he’d somehow used up all of his panic in the hours leading up to this and was now just left with quiet fear. “Oh, god....god, no…”

“This is it. This is the guy who killed Remus.” Logan said, as anger suddenly boiled in his gut. The person who killed his best friend for no reason was sitting somewhere, watching them. They’d already watched as Remus was sawed in half, and now he was going to sit back and watch two more gruesome ends. He looked over at the camera, staring directly in the lens. “You’re not going to get away with this. Our friends know we’re in danger, they won’t let you catch them--”

“Look around, Logan.” Patton said, and the fearful defeat in his voice made Logan’s heart sink. “We fell for the trap. We’re going to die here, and I’m...god, I don’t think I’m ready to die--”

“No one is going to die.” Logan said, so firmly he almost believed it himself. “You hear me? We’re going to get out of here. It’s going to be fine.”

“It’s not!” Patton cried. “We’re not! We’ve been strapped to chairs by a murderer who’s already sawed one of our friends in half, he’s not just gonna’ let us go--”

“Patton--”

“And we’re going to die, and we’ll have wasted everything!”

“Wasted? Wasted what?” Logan asked. “Even if we die here, we haven’t--”

“You know what I’m talking about.” Patton said. He sounded more serious than Logan had ever heard him, and silent tears were streaked down his face. “You’ve been nice enough to act like you don’t notice, but I’ve had a massive crush on you since kindergarten, and I’ve been too scared to actually say anything, and now it’s all for nothing!”

If it weren’t for the fact that Logan had seen things he thought only happened in horror movies that night, that would’ve been the most shocking thing he’d heard in his entire life. Patton, the same Patton that had an effect on his heart that no one else had, who was kind to a fault and way too good for him, that Patton, had a crush on _him_ . Since _kindergarten_.

“None of it...none of it was wasted, Pat.” Logan said, and for a brief moment, it was almost like he could pretend that the video camera wasn’t there, that they were actually alone and no one was watching them. “Not a second.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every minute I spent with you...it’s the only thing I ever wanted to do with my time.” Logan said. “You’re so good, Patton, so caring for everyone you know, and being around you makes me feel safe. Like you’re the only person who won’t poke fun at me for any of my habits.”

“Logan.” Patton said, and when Logan looked at him, it seemed like Patton had also forgotten where they were for the moment. He was staring at Logan with a kind of sad awe, like he knew he was going to have to say goodbye in minutes but he still wanted to hang on. Logan couldn’t decide if he loved that look or hated it.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve told you how I felt.” Logan said. “I was just scared. I can’t remember why.”

“Neither can I.” Patton admitted. “That was nothing. I’m scared right now.”

“We’re going to get out of here.” Logan said, the determination suddenly returning to him. Patton liked him. Patton liked him back, and now that Logan knew that, he wasn’t about to let him go. “Don’t be scared, okay?”

“ _Oh, you should be, sweet little Patton._ ”

Patton shrieked as the same voice from the old barn echoed throughout the room, and a chill went down Logan’s spine. He closed his eyes, almost like everything would disappear if he couldn’t see it. Or maybe he would wake up, and this all actually was a nightmare.

“ _You see, our friend Logan has already made one fatal choice tonight. And now, he gets to make another.”_

The hope that this was a nightmare died as Logan suddenly heard the loud, pervasive sound of a buzzsaw that had become far too familiar, mixed with Patton’s screams. His eyes snapped open, and looked up to see two buzzsaws suspended over their heads. They were spinning faster and faster, and if Logan was looking at it right, it seemed like they were lowering towards their heads.

Fuck.

“ _Those saws are going to get lower and lower until the two of you get to see your friend Remus again._ ” The voice said. “ _But Logan here has the option to save one of you. Logan, you can take that gun on the table and shoot Patton, or you can shoot yourself. Whoever is left can live. The choice is all yours.”_

Patton was violently struggling against the bonds that held him to the chair, but from where Logan was sitting, it didn’t seem like he was faring any better than he had.

Logan reached forward with his free hand, and his fingers closed around the handle of the gun. It felt unnaturally cold and heavy in his hand, and the weight seemed to grow as he looked up at Patton again.

Patton’s cheeks were tearstained, his eyes were red rimmed, and his voice was growing hoarse from screaming. Patton was kind-hearted and empathetic, willing to help anyone, even those he didn’t know. He saw the good in just about everything and every person. Logan had sacrificed once for him already, tonight. He stared down at the gun.

Would one more sacrifice really be all that bad?

“Logan? Logan, no, don’t.” Patton said, catching Logan’s attention. Logan hadn’t pointed the gun at all yet, but his thoughts must have been written across his face. “Please, don’t.”

“You can get out of here.” Logan said, and his voice felt hollow. “You can get out of here, go get the others, and escape the mountain. You deserve to get out.”

“And you don’t?” Patton asked, and sucked in a sharp breath. “Shoot me. Do it before I freak out, please.”

“I’m not going to shoot you, Patton--”

“You have to.” Patton said. “You already had to choose to save me, Logan, and I’m never going to forget what you’ve already sacrificed for me. But you shouldn’t have to go through this again. Let me choose this time. Let me choose to save you, _please_.”

Logan looked at the gun in his hand, and back to Patton, and the buzzsaws grew ever closer.

~~**Should Logan:** ~~

~~**Shoot Patton? or Shoot himself?** ~~

**VOTING CLOSED**

_BUTTERFLY EFFECTS DISCOVERED:_

_Patton Followed Logan -- Patton Couldn't Defend Himself_

_Dee Successfully Hid From the Maniac -- Patton and Logan Found a Mannequin in Dee's Clothes_

_Logan Chose to Save Patton Over Remus -- Patton Asked Logan to Shoot Him_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm currently posting this as my girlfriend and best friend are making cosplay tiktoks together. i get to see them again now that i'm back on a college campus and my mental health is thriving for it, how are y'all


	24. Loss: Sacrifice and Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To live in ignorant bliss is to regret words never spoken.

**YOU CHOSE: SHOOT LOGAN**

Logan’s finger closed carefully around the trigger, not quite enough to fire it, but enough that it made his heart pound in his chest and every self preservation instinct inside him scream out. He didn’t want to die. He was far too young to die, he hadn’t even graduated high school yet. All that time spent locking himself up in his room, studying for hours, researching colleges, revising papers, it wasn’t going to matter.

But he liked studying. He enjoyed looking into things and falling down a spiral of Wikipedia pages as more and more articles caught his attention, hungry to stuff as much knowledge as he could into his head. He didn’t particularly like parties, or being around other people for very long, either. Remus was the one to bring him out of his shell, and Remus was gone now. No. None of his time had been wasted if he died here. He’d done what he liked, and that would be good enough for him.

But Patton. Patton was so full of love and life and cutting that off too soon would be doing everyone around them a disservice. Patton cared, truly, deeply, innocently, and that kind of thing was rare. Even now, in the face of certain death, Patton looked at him with frightened yet understanding eyes, a face that told him it would be alright. He could sacrifice Patton now, and go on, and know that Patton would not be angry at him for it.

He stared at Patton for a little longer, trying to burn the little details about his face into his memory for one more time. His eyelashes were long, longer than Logan had ever seemed to take notice of. If he pushed his glasses up his nose a bit more they would brush against the lenses. There were tiny creases beside his eyes already, a reminder that even if the smile wasn’t there tonight, it had been there a million times before. Light freckles splattered over his nose and cheeks, and Logan remembered that once, he’d read a quote that had gone something like: “a face without freckles is like a sky without stars”. His eyes were a cloudy sort of blue, the same color of the little patches of just-barely clear sky that manages to peek through on an especially cloudy day.

He’d known as soon as he heard the choices, deep down.

He would not kill Patton Ardal. Not for anything.

He pressed the barrel of the gun to his own throat before his self-preservation instincts could kick back in and keep him from finishing the job. His stomach lurched as the freezing metal brushed against his jaw, but he clenched his jaw. He would go through with this. He would save Patton, regardless of the cost.

Patton’s eyes widened as the gun made contact, and pulled against his restraints in a sudden wild panic, trying to reach Logan.

“No, no, _no_ , Logan, please, don’t do it--!”

“I love you.” Logan choked out, and Patton froze, tears already spilling over his eyes. “I’m sorry I never told you.”

And Logan pulled the trigger. 

**\-- DEE, 3:05 A.M. --**

**  
****\-- FOUR HOURS UNTIL DAWN --**

The cold was really starting to set in as Dee slowly made his way through the vents, afraid to move too fast in case he were to make a noise and immediately alert the maniac back to his position.

He’d stayed firmly put for what had felt like forever underneath that doorway, his fear holding him firmly to the spot. It felt like ages, too long for any person to wait around in hopes of securing a victim, but Dee still had an antsy sort of feeling in his gut, like he was going to turn around and suddenly see the maniac behind him. He’d only come out because he’d started to feel like he was going to literally freeze in place, and even when he had and seen no sign of the maniac around, going through the basement normally felt far too out in the open.

Now, here he was, crawling through a vent, feeling cold metal against his chest and wondering if the hypothermia was going to do him in before the maniac did.

The video of Remus being torn in half was playing over and over again in his head like a broken record, and it had gone on for so long that Dee was almost starting to feel numb to it. He didn’t have time to break down, as much as he wanted to, so instead, he forced out the emotion and just let it go on and on, over and over, and did his very best not to think too much about it. The only problem with that was that there wasn’t much else to think about, especially not since the maniac had called him something that only Remus knew. The two facts were clashing in Dee’s mind, and he absolutely hated that he had no idea how to put them together or what it would mean when he did.

Soon enough, Dee came to another grate that blocked the vent shaft from another large, mostly empty room. It felt the same as the room he’d left -- centuries old, with meager, rotting wooden furniture pushed up against the dirty walls to collapse into heaps of useless wood over time. The last thing Dee wanted was to get caught back in the maze of rooms again, but as far as he could tell, this was the only place the vent was leading to. He hadn’t spotted anywhere else they branched off to, so unless Dee wanted to sit in the vents for the rest of time and hope that someone friendly found him, it was time to leave.

He shifted awkwardly in the vent so that his feet were facing the grate, and kicked it. The cold metal felt sharp against the bottom of his bare foot, but he gritted his teeth and kicked it again. A little pain would be nothing when the alternative was to be stuck in a vent for a murderer to find.

The grate finally came loose when he kicked it a third time, and when Dee awkwardly twisted to try and get a better look at his foot, he found his first lucky break of the night -- no cuts. Scrapes, sure, and a bit of bruising, but no blood. No need to fear walking around on dirt floors and seeing just how bad of an infection he could give himself before the night was over.

Dee carefully slid out of the vent and landed with a rough thud, stumbling slightly before he managed to catch his balance. He didn’t stop to take in anything else about the room, and instead pressed on, wrapping his arms tightly around himself to try and keep what little warmth he could. By the time he was at the doorway that led out into a hallway, he heard it. A soft, almost silent kind of static, and when he looked closely, a door on the adjacent hallway had a small hole cut into the center, not unlike the one Dee had slammed shut when running away earlier. A faint light was streaming through it, easily spotted amongst the darkness, and Dee crept closer.

He slapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from gasping or screaming when he saw what was on the other side. The maniac stood in front of a collection of computer screens, each of which showing a different room in the lodge. It was a sick kind of surveillance system, and if Dee squinted, he could see one particular screen that seemed to be just replaying Remus’s death on repeat. It would’ve made him sick to watch again if it hadn’t already been burned into his skull.

The maniac didn’t seem to notice anything was amiss at all, however. He didn’t even turn to look back towards the door, and that was just fine with Dee. He moved as quickly as he could to the other side of the door, and only let himself really breathe again once the door was a good ten feet away from him. His hands were shaking, just a little, and somewhere in the tangled up mess of fear that was currently his brain, he made a note to never poke fun at Virgil for being nervous about anything ever again.

He was there. He was right there, watching the screens as casually as if he was binging a show on Netflix. Watching them panic, watching them suffer, watching them die. Did he care? Did he care at all for the kind of pain he was putting them through, or had any sense of humanity long died within him?

Dee didn’t know, and he didn’t feel like sticking around to find out.

He turned to continue down the hallway, when another light, this one closer to the floor, caught his eye. Something trapped underneath one of the pieces of rotting wood that used to be some kind of shelf was glowing, and Dee carefully and quietly stooped to reach for it. His fingers closed around a familiar kind of shape, and when he pulled his hand back, he was holding a phone. Not just any phone, either, he realized, and his throat seemed to close up. It was Remus’ phone in his hands, same dark green octopus-themed case, same cracks in the screen from all the times he’d dropped it. It was open to a text conversation, and Dee squinted as he read it. The person Remus was talking to wasn’t in his contacts, so they were only labeled with their phone number, but Dee could put the pieces together well enough. 

_Remus, I have just received your email and I feel_ _  
_ _it is imperative that we discuss this before you_ _  
_ _continue with this plan. It does not seem like a_ _  
_ _good idea, and I’m worried you or others will_ _  
_ _be hurt._

_Please call my office as soon as you can to make_ _  
_ _an appointment._

_If you don’t respond soon, I will have no choice_ _  
_ _but to contact your parents about this._

_LEAVE ME ALONE_

_Are you still taking your medication?_

_I’m fine_

_Shit._ Dee bit his lip and tightened his grip on the phone as he read through the rest of the texts. Remus didn’t respond to the person again, and the texts simply devolved into the person briefly explaining the dangers of stopping medication in the middle of a course, and continuous texts asking for Remus to respond. The last one had come in at ten that night, right before they’d come up to the mountain.

His thoughts were interrupted as he suddenly heard a kind of shuffling from the direction of the door with the hole in it, and he nearly dropped Remus’ phone as he bolted from the hallway, darting into the closest room he could find.

It was just like the others, dark, dirty, rotting. Dee couldn’t help but wonder if he’d somehow gotten stuck in a looping maze, repeating the same room over and over again, but just as the thought crossed his mind, his eyes caught sight of something that seemed to have been haphazardly thrown into the back corner of the room.

It was a chair, a spinning one, with a mannequin thrown across it without a care in the world. The mannequin had a scary clown mask pulled over its head, but what really caught Dee’s attention was when he looked down.

The mannequin was wearing his clothes.

“The fuck?” Dee muttered, and reached out to gingerly tug at the sleeve of his jacket. They were definitely his clothes, the same ones he’d been wearing before he’d changed into his pajamas. What did the maniac want with stealing them and dressing up some weird mannequin with them?

Dee frowned. He doubted he could ever understand the mind of a maniac, not even if he sat for the rest of the night trying to come up with a reason. But if his clothes were here…

Dee looked up, his eyes doing their best to scan the room through the darkness, and there it was. His backpack was hanging off of a doorknob on the other side of the room, and from here, it looked like it hadn’t been otherwise touched. Lucky break number two.

Dee headed towards it. There would be the rest of his clothes in there, and he could finally put a damn shirt on and maybe avoid hypothermia--

“Dee.”

Dee just barely managed to hold back a panicked shriek when he suddenly felt a hand close around his ankle.

He jumped backwards, and once again nearly lost his balance. He was seconds away from bolting again when he finally caught sight of what had grabbed him. There was a small grate towards the floor that apparently led to a much larger space than Dee had figured, as he could see Roman standing there, his arm still partially through the grate. He looked like he'd been through hell. His hair was a mess, there were a couple fresh bruises scattered across his face, and he was wearing an old fashioned jacket that Dee had never seen before.

“Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to--”

“Shh!” Dee shushed him harshly, and immediately dropped to his knees to get closer to him, close enough that they could talk without being heard. “What the hell are you doing down there?”

“Long story.” Roman said, and he’d thankfully caught the hint and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Like, seriously. An insanely long story. It doesn’t matter, we need to get off this mountain right now. There’s a maniac up here with us, Dee.”

Dee almost laughed.

“You think?”

Roman’s face immediately knitted into one of confusion, and Dee couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“Why do you think I’m in the basement shirtless, dumbass?” Dee asked. “I’ve been chased around by a guy trying to kill me, and everyone else is gone. It hasn’t exactly been a party.”

“But…” Roman said, with none of the confusion leaving his face. “But I was just...god, did I really get that lost?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I just chased that maniac up to the old sanatorium.” Roman said. “I’ve been trying to get back here through this crazy system of tunnels, it, uh, it turns out the lodge and the sanatorium are connected, for some reason, but I got lost. You’re the first familiar face I’ve seen in a while -- what do you mean everyone’s gone?”

“I mean, I woke up, and everyone else was gone. The lodge is empty, as far as I can tell.” Dee explained. “I don’t know where--”

He tripped over his words as his heart suddenly lurched in his throat. That wasn’t true. He knew where one person was. Trouble was, the person who shared his face was now standing right in front of him, and with the look on his face, he had no idea what had happened.

“What?” Roman asked, and his head tilted just slightly. “What’s wrong?”

So, so much. 

~~**Should Dee:** ~~

~~**Tell Roman? or Hide the truth?** ~~

**VOTING CLOSED**


	25. Loss: Hang On By a Thread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who is the face behind the mask?

**YOU CHOSE: TELL ROMAN**

“Roman...Remus is dead.” Dee said, and the change in Roman’s face was instant. Something changed behind his eyes, something that Dee couldn’t quite place. It felt like Dee had just set a raging storm loose, one that would tear up everything it saw but eventually end in destroying itself. Roman Sanders’ eyes were windows into a hurricane, and Dee suddenly felt that perhaps the maniac was no longer the most dangerous person on the mountain.

“How?” Roman asked, and with how firm his voice was, it almost wasn’t a question. “ _How?_ ”

“I saw it. The maniac, when he almost caught me, he started playing this video where he was tied up, and this huge fucking sawblade just….just tore him in half. Roman, it was bad.” Dee said, and Roman turned away from him, walking just slightly further into the room he was in. “Roman--”

“ _Fuck!_ ” Roman blurted, and Dee’s heart leapt into his throat as Roman kicked something that Dee couldn’t see, and Dee could hear that something collapse under the force. His anger seemed to melt into something else almost immediately though, because Dee could see him suddenly crouch low to the ground, and bury his face in his hands. “Fuck, shit, no _,_ no no _no--_ ”

“Roman.” Dee said, and spared a quick glance over his shoulder. The hallway behind him was still empty, but god only knew how long that would last. “You can’t make a lot of noise, you--”

“The fuck do you want me to do, Dee?” Roman asked, turning around to face him. “I’ve already lost Virgil tonight, now you’re telling me I’ve lost my brother, and I wasn’t even here?”

“Virgil?” Dee’s ears were suddenly ringing. “What happened to Virgil?”

“What do you _think_ happened to Virgil?” Roman asked, his voice sharp. “The maniac got him. Pulled him out of the cabin through the window like he was a ragdoll and dropped him down a mineshaft, okay? He’s _gone_. He’s gone, and I could’ve saved him if I had just been a few minutes faster--”

“Don’t start down the self-blame path or we’re not going to get anywhere.” Dee said. He swallowed, forcing his heart out of his throat and back down where it belonged. Virgil was dead. He was dead, and Dee didn’t have the time to process it quite yet. He didn’t have time to think about the kid who’d always been far too thin and far too pale, who’d trailed after him and Remus in kindergarten like a lost puppy, and let them drag him into all kinds of trouble. He could think about Virgil, who wore leather gloves under his hoodie to seem tougher than he actually was, when he was off the mountain, out of danger, and standing in front of his closet where one of Virgil’s hoodies was still hiding. He’d left it there years ago. Dee had always meant to return it. “We need to find the others and get off this damn mountain. There will be plenty of time for self-blame afterwards.”

Roman opened his mouth, and for a second, Dee thought he was going to argue, but then he closed it again.

“...you’re right.” He muttered, but the storm behind his eyes hadn’t faded in the slightest. “You’re right, we have to go. There’s a door on this side but I can’t get it open, do you think you can get it from your side?”

Dee looked back to see the door that his backpack was still hanging from.

“Yeah. Yeah, I got it. Give me a second.”

Dee stood up, and headed to the door, slinging the backpack over his shoulder. The doorknob turned with no restraint at all, and led into a small, cinder block corridor with a set of stairs heading down. Dee headed down the stairs, and at the bottom was a rotting wooden door. It honestly looked like it wouldn’t hold against someone looking at it in the wrong way, but if Roman had wanted to get out, it must have been stronger than it looked. Or maybe the wooden beam that was placed across it was extremely effective. Dee lifted the beam, and when the door swung open, he immediately felt a sense of relief.

Roman was there. Sure, he was in a stranger’s jacket, covered from head to toe in dirt, bruises, and spiderwebs, and he had a look behind his eyes that screamed danger, but he was there. He was familiar. And he wasn’t going to hurt Dee. Dee didn’t usually mind being alone, but up on the mountain with a killer maniac on the loose, seeing a friendly face felt like he could finally breathe again.

“You look like hell.” Dee said, and moved past Roman further into the room, setting his bag down on the ground.

“Oh, yeah, nice to see you’re still alive, too.” Roman said, and Dee couldn’t help but scoff. “What are you doing?”

Dee glanced up from unzipping his bag to see Roman’s eyes on him. Dee looked back at his bag, then back at Roman, and raised an eyebrow. Seriously?

“Well, you know. Not wearing a shirt does wonders for defending against maniacs and hypothermia alike.”

“Oh, shit. Are you good? Like, actually?” Roman asked, and Dee rolled his eyes.

“I’ll be fine. Just let me get changed.” Dee said, and reached into his bag to pull out some extra clothes.

“Right, right.” Roman said, and Dee could practically feel Roman’s eyes leave him.

Pulling on one of his long sleeved shirts and an extra jacket felt like a _dream_. He’d grown almost numb to the cold after being in it for so long, which probably hadn’t been a good sign, but finally having something to block it out suddenly made him aware of how cold he’d been the past hour, and he couldn’t help but wonder how he’d been able to stand it. The adrenaline, probably. He changed into his jeans, and carefully pulled a pair of socks over his bare feet, which were bruised and covered in dirt from the cracking stone floors. He hadn’t even noticed how bad that had gotten, and if his feet alone looked that rough, he could only imagine how the rest of him looked. He thanked just about every god he could think of that he had thought to pack an extra pair of sneakers, and pulled on a thin pair of gloves before he stood up, and slung his lighter backpack over his shoulder.

“That’s better. You ready to get the hell out of here?”

“You don’t have to twist my arm.” Roman said, but he still waited for Dee to make it back over to him before he started moving towards the door.

Neither of them made it very far out of the door, however, before a distant scream froze them both in their tracks.

“ _NO! No, no, no, it should have been me, please--!_ ”

“Is that Patton?” Roman asked.

He and Dee locked eyes for a moment, before the both of them took off running towards the sound of the scream. Dee was wary of making too much noise, yes, but that was definitely Patton screaming, and if he had to choose a single person up on the mountain who definitely didn’t deserve to be put through torture at the hands of a maniac, it was Patton.

The two of them wound their way through a twisting hall, and came upon a thick metal door. Patton’s screams were beginning to sound hysterical, but that wasn’t all Dee could hear. Underneath the yelling, he could hear the sound of a whirring sawblade, and he suddenly felt sick.

Not again. Please, not again.

“ _I made the choice, I did what you asked! Let him go!_ ”

Was that Logan?

Roman pressed his hands against the bar handle of the door, and looked back at Dee.

“Come on, we have to get in there. Help me get it open.”

Dee nodded, and set his hands on the bar. His hands weren’t shaking quite yet, at least. That was nice of his body, to at least make him seem a little more confident than he felt.

“On three. One, two, _three_ -”

Both Dee and Roman stumbled as the door gave with much less resistance than either of them were expecting, and right as the door opened, the sound of the saw blades came to a halt. As Dee regained his balance, he looked up to see that they were in a relatively large room. In the center of it was a wooden table, and at either side of it, strapped down to wooden chairs, sat Patton and Logan. A pair of sawblades hung directly over their heads, but both were now silent, and weren’t lowering any further. A camera was sitting a few feet away from them, and Logan had a sleek black gun in his hand.

“No! No, no, no, stay away from me!” Patton suddenly screamed, and Dee turned his attention away from the two of them to see what Patton was looking at.

He immediately felt his self-preservation kick in, giving him the urge to grab Roman and bolt as the maniac stood on the other side of the room, slowly walking over towards Patton and Logan’s table.

He didn’t run, though. He stood frozen to the spot, right alongside Roman, and simply watched as Logan, living up to his role of being the smart one out of all of them, turned the pistol towards the maniac and fired.

The gun went off with a loud bang once, twice, three times, but the maniac barely even flinched. Confusion began to set in as Dee watched the maniac stare down at his chest, and then look back up at Logan. Sure, Logan wasn’t exactly experienced with a gun, but the maniac was three feet in front of him. There was no way even he could miss.

“ _Oh, Logan.”_ The maniac said, and a chill ran down Dee’s spine. “ _Oh, Lo, Lo, Lo, Lo. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one._ ”

“What the fuck?” Logan asked, and turned the gun to stare at it, confusion and terror written over his face.

“ _Well, I mean, you’ve heard of blanks before.”_ The maniac said in a strangely casual, almost mocking tone. “ _I mean, really? You’re better than this._ ”

The maniac didn’t make a move for either Patton or Logan, and instead, reached up towards his mask. He pulled it off in one smooth, practiced motion, and suddenly Dee didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or punch him in the face.

Because underneath the mask was Remus Sanders, with that same manic grin that he always got whenever a terrible idea went exactly as planned. 

**\-- REMY, 3:00 A.M. --**

Even as he regained consciousness, Remy didn’t want to open his eyes. He felt strange, like all the blood had rushed to his head, and like he was floating in nothingness. Weightless, with gravity pulling his arms up, or maybe...maybe down. It was hard to tell.

Was he dead? Was that what this was? He remembered falling from the tower and everything quickly going dark, but he certainly hadn’t seen any light at the end of a tunnel. Or his life flash before his eyes. Oh, god, if he was dead, he hoped he’d at least gotten into the good place. Or purgatory. He’d settle for purgatory, if it came down to it.

The familiar creaking of rusting metal along with sudden realization that something was wrapped around his leg was what finally made him open his eyes. Oh.

He was hanging upside down in the middle of the cave. The flaming wreckage of the tower still loomed above him, a twisted, mangled knot of old metal, and from it, several ropes had fallen loose and had somehow gotten tangled up around his leg as he fell. He would have called it a miracle, if he didn’t feel like a quick death would have at least been a mercy.

“Fuck! Fuck, shit, EM!” He screamed, and his voice echoed off the cave walls, with no response. “No, no no no, come on, Em, don’t do this to me…”

He must have left. Assumed Remy had died from the fall and left. Remy couldn’t blame him, at least, not really. He would have left too. It wasn’t like he could have survived the fall if it weren’t for the rope. Maybe he’d gone to find the others, get them all together, and get off the mountain. That would be good. For them, at least.

Remy gritted his teeth as he turned his head to look above him. It still looked far too dark to be morning, but he couldn’t be entirely sure. How long had he been hanging there? Minutes? Hours? Had their rescue already shown up, and left Remy behind in a cave where no one would even be able to hear him scream?

He let his head fall again, and grimaced at the jolt. It wasn’t just the blood rushing to his head, either. Something about his leg felt...wrong, but he couldn’t exactly place it. Having a rope catch his fall entirely through his leg probably wasn’t good for it. At least it was still attached to him.

Remy started looking around the cave. It was dark, sure, but he could make out certain shapes if he squinted, and if there was a way out of here, he was going to find it. He would not be going out at seventeen from a _fall,_ and certainly would not be dying before senior prom, if he had anything to say about it.

There. On the wall, to his left, if he squinted. The ladder from the fire tower had already split in a few places, and one of the pieces was now stuck overtop of what looked like an entrance to another mining tunnel. Remy reached out towards it, and swore under his breath as he strained for it, but wasn’t even close to being able to grab it. Fuck.

Okay. Okay, he could do this. The creaking of the tower above him was making him sick, and he was pretty sure that being upside down for this long would cause some form of brain damage, but he could do this. He was...he was suspended from a rope. A rope that could move.

Remy kept his eyes on the ladder as best as he could, and similarly to how he used to swing on a swing set when he was a kid, tried to pull himself backwards. He didn’t move much, just a little, but it was enough to give him hope. He pushed himself forward again as he started to fall back to his original position, and moved a little further. _Yes._

“Come on, come on…” He muttered, and got his arms into the movement as he started to swing. The ladder was coming closer and closer within reach every few seconds, but the creaking of the tower above him was becoming more frequent, and more violent. Not to mention, the rope around his leg suddenly wasn’t feeling as tight as it was a minute before --

His fingers finally reached the ladder not a moment too soon. The rope slipped right as he grabbed hold, shaken loose from his swinging, and a scream launched from Remy’s throat as gravity finally got what it wanted and tried to pull him down into the void below. He managed to hold tightly to the ladder bars, though, and all that gravity got out of him was a painful pull on both his shoulders, and an extreme headache as all the blood rushed back out of his head. _Ow_.

His fingers wouldn’t be able to hold out forever, though. Not with how red they already were from the cold, and how he could already feel his grip starting to slip. The entrance to the mining tunnel just a few rungs away, and panic pushed Remy forward. He moved towards the tunnel like an elementary schooler playing on monkey bars, and when he was finally safely above ground he could see, he dropped.

The energy seemed to instantly sap out of him as soon as his feet hit solid ground, and he sunk to his knees in a combination of relief and mortal terror. He almost died. If he had missed that ladder rung. If the rope hadn’t caught him. He let himself fall back against the rough stone, and for a moment, he didn’t even care that the rock was cutting into his back. The ground was there. It was under his fingertips, and it wasn’t going to drop him.

It might, however, let something fall on top of him.

Remy’s eyes widened as there was a jolt from above, and the wreckage of the tower began to slide once more. It was slow, of course, still partially held up by the sides of the pit, but it was definitely moving again. And if Remy didn’t move soon, it would crush him.

He scrambled backwards, but not quite fast enough to beat one flaming piece of debris that dislodged amongst several others that came raining down towards his head. It was a tiny scrap of metal, but it felt much larger as it just managed to tear through his leg before ricocheting off the rock and down into the chasm.

Remy screamed, and did his best to pull himself further into the tunnel as a stinging, burning pain joined the dull ache in his leg. It felt like he was only out of the tower’s way for ten seconds before the whole thing came down one last time, crashing through where Remy had been sitting just seconds before. It left flaming wreckage in its wake, and Remy winced as he heard the final crash down below.

That could have been him.

He shook his head to do his best to clear his thoughts, and gingerly sat with his back to the cavern wall, pulling his leg closer to inspect it. There was a long, jagged gash in the side of his leg where the debris had hit him, tearing straight through his jeans. He cautiously reached out towards it, only to immediately retract his hand with a slight hiss of pain when he touched it. Fuck. He let his head fall back against the wall, and gave himself a second -- just a second -- to breathe. Think. Figure things out.

He didn’t have any bandages on him. As far as he knew, his friends had already escaped the mountain and assumed he was already dead. He was alone, truly alone, stuck in an abandoned mineshaft that he had no idea how to get out of. If there even was a way. He reached up to instinctively pull his sunglasses down on his face, and --

Oh. No sunglasses, either. Great. Those were probably long gone to the chasm.

Staying down here wasn’t an option. Not by a long shot. All that was down here was darkness and potential starvation, and while it was definitely better than being crushed by a hunk of mangled metal where no one would find him, Remy had to get out.

He carefully pulled himself back up to his feet and grimaced as pain shot through his leg, shifting more of his weight over to his good one. He took a cautious first step, and winced, but kept going anyway, partially walking, partially dragging his bad leg over the stone. A hurt leg was better than dying. A hurt leg was better than dying. A hurt leg was--

A cold chill shot down Remy’s spine like a bullet as a strange kind of noise rang out through the cave. It sounded like a scream, hauntingly human, but at the same time it sounded so distinctly inhuman that it made goosebumps rise on Remy’s skin that had absolutely nothing to do with the cold. What the fuck was that?

He kept moving forward, now more out of terror than determination. He had no idea what the hell was making that noise, but whatever it was, he was certain he wanted to be as far away from it as possible.

As he got further into the cave, a dim light in the distant allowed for the slightest bit of hope to flare up inside him. It was an old, flickering lantern, that looked like it was seconds away from going out, but the closer Remy got to it, the less the lantern seemed to matter.

He entered into a wider clearing, and the first thing he noticed was the large, metal and wooden structure that reached up to and through the craggy ceiling above his head. It was blocked off by a door, so Remy couldn’t see exactly what the structure was, but a rusting sign that was hanging loosely over the door confirmed his suspicions.

_SURFACE ELEVATOR_

“Oh, fuck yes.” Remy muttered to himself, and didn’t waste another second before throwing open the door. A direct line out of here. It was more than he could have hoped for. More than he could have prayed for, if he tried praying. Being handed an elevator back up to the surface of the mountain would have been enough to make him believe that God was real, if it weren’t for everything else that had already happened that night.

The elevator was sitting there as he approached, just waiting for someone to take it up to the surface, and Remy finally felt a kind of relief that wasn’t tinged with horror. It would be so easy. Pull the lever, get to the surface, find the lodge, figure out his next move from there. He could do this. Maybe the others hadn’t left yet, and they were waiting for rescue at the lodge. Oh, he was going to scare the shit out of Emile when he showed up there, he would probably think he was seeing a ghost--

The hope drained from Remy’s mind as he pulled the lever to turn the elevator on, and nothing happened. Not even the slightest creak of gears trying to turn, just the dull thunk of a lever moving, and then nothing.

Remy swore, and looked up through the elevator shaft. He could see it, too. Above him was a path up to the dark, empty sky, with just the smallest amount of moonlight able to sneak through. It was right up there. Remy was so close.

He kicked the side of the elevator, not caring about how old it was, or the fact that it looked like it could fall apart if you said the wrong word too close to it. Stupid, broken, old-ass piece of _shit_.

He left the elevator, and looked around the cave in a kind of desperation. Surely, surely there had to be a power source. Something he could find, and fix, or do something. He couldn’t be sitting right next to an escape and not be able to use it, he _refused_ , he--

Remy nearly fell over as another one of those same screeches rang out, closer this time, only now, it was accompanied by a strange blast of noise and light in the distance. His instincts screamed at him to run, to put as much distance between him and whatever the hell that was as he possibly could, but the screaming pain in his leg was louder. He couldn’t run, and even if he could, he didn’t have anywhere to run to. The only things around him were the cold, pressing walls of the mineshaft. He couldn’t just abandon the way out.

There. Illuminated by the dying orange light from the blast, for a split second, he saw it. A red emergency maintenance ladder, leaning against the side of the elevator shaft, right next to where the clearing dropped off down into a much darker pit. Remy wasn’t too thrilled about the cliff, but a maintenance ladder sounded like the exact thing he needed. Climb up the ladder, find the power source, and boom, he’d be in business. Back up on the surface and heading safely to a hospital and a therapist before he could say “get me the fuck out of this cave”.

He headed over to the ladder, his eyes darting around for any more signs of the screaming thing and its fire. He could hear the screeching noises every once in a while, but they were growing more distant. As he started to pull himself up the ladder, he was almost getting used to them. In some kind of sick way.

He could see it now. A little box on the side of the elevator shaft, similar to the one that had been outside the tower. The tower’s power source hadn’t been difficult to figure out. Surely this one wouldn’t be, either. Remy reached for the last rung at the top of the ladder to pull himself up, and --

SNAP.

Remy screamed as the ladder suddenly split off from the side of the elevator shaft, the rusty nails holding it in place finally snapping under his sudden weight after being left alone for so long. He scrambled for purchase on the elevator shaft, or the craggy stone floor, and found none, as he tumbled down and fell -- of course -- down the cliffside leading down into the dark pit.

The only lucky break he got was that it wasn’t a sheer dropoff. The cliff sloped just enough to allow him to slide down rather than actually fall. He gave up trying to grab on to something to slow his descent about halfway down, as the only thing he was accomplishing was completely cutting up his hands. His feet still skidded against the rock, trying desperately to find one way to slow him down, and eventually, they did. The only bad news was that he only managed to stop himself at the bottom of the cliff.

He could barely see his own hand in front of his face. His palms stung after the fall, and little pinpricks of pain went through his hand as he unzipped his jacket pocket and rooted around for his prize -- his phone. It wasn’t going to be much help with calling anyone at the moment, but some light would be better than no light, and his phone’s flashlight could provide that just fine. He turned his phone on, wincing as his eyes adjusted to the light of the screen, and turned the flashlight on.

A human skull sat five feet away from him. Another, just beside it. Three more, a little ways behind the first two, all with spikes shoved crudely through them.

Remy was getting really tired of screaming, and his throat was protesting even as he slammed his back back up against the cliff, and reached up to try and frantically find a foothold he could use to pull himself up and away from the dark pit of nightmares and death.

“HEY!” He screamed, his voice growing hoarse. “HEY! SOMEONE LET ME OUT! HELP! HELP ME!”

No response came. Not like Remy was actually expecting one.

His hysteria eventually wavered, and ebbed away just enough to let him breathe, just enough to let him turn around and face the grim display of death again.

What the _fuck_ happened here?

~~**Should Remy:** ~~

~~**Investigate the skulls? or Look for a way out?** ~~

**VOTING CLOSED**

_Butterfly Effect Discovered:_

_Emile Jumped to Safety -- Remy Assumed Emile Left Him_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to ~radical saturday~ 
> 
> i have a lot of feelings about 90s skater kid virgil

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the start of a brand new adventure >:)
> 
> So basically the way this is going to work is pretty simple. At the end of every chapter (aside from the prologue and the ending, obviously), there will be a choice to make. You can vote for which choice you want by commenting which choice you want, and after a week has passed, I'll count up the votes, and whichever choice has the majority vote will be where the story goes next (I'm planning on having two weeks in between each chapter, one for the voting, and one for me to actually write it). Be warned: I am not afraid to kill off characters. If you make a decision that could lead to a person's death, they could very well die. No one is safe. 
> 
> Also, just to make things a little more fun, I'm changing a couple things around. Some choices will not have the same outcomes as they do in the original Until Dawn game, and there will be a couple of new choices that aren't in the game at all. Be careful what you choose. I'm also not including every single little choice that's in the game, because honestly, if I stopped the story for two weeks just to figure out if a character yells "I hate you" or "you suck" at another, this story would take years to get through. I'm only doing choices that are going to hugely affect the way a certain story beat goes. 
> 
> Some other important stuff:  
> -Please only vote once! It'll make the vote count way easier to keep up with.  
> -I know it's been years since Until Dawn came out, but try to keep spoilers to a minimum, so that people who haven't played the game will still get some fun out of this (also, keep in mind what I said earlier -- not every choice is going to lead to the same thing as it does in the game. This is an AU, so it's going to be similar, but not identical).  
> -QTE's and Don't Move's obviously don't work in this format, so they're not going to be here, either. However, I'm planning on adding a couple extra choices in that lead to a few more deaths because let's be real, it's not fair if whoever gets put in Sam's place gets a "get out of death" card just because they're in Sam's position.  
> -Dr. Hill segments are also getting cut. Hate that guy. All he does is change a couple of jumpscares and show you how fucked up Josh is. I can do that on my own.  
> -Also, keep in mind that whoever I place in an original character's position has nothing to do with that character's personality, it's all about what that character goes through. Do I think Logan is anything like Chris? Absolutely not. Do I think Logan in some of Chris' scenarios is the most fun? You bet your ass I do.  
> -That being said, Remy just is Emily and I think we can all agree on that. 
> 
> And that's it! The first real chapter should be coming out pretty soon, so until then, enjoy the prologue, and get ready for the game to begin. You can talk to me at my tumblr: @possiblyawesometmblr , I will be happy to yell about this AU until the end of time.


End file.
